


Thor: The Battle of Asgard

by irminguarde



Category: Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-15
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irminguarde/pseuds/irminguarde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"A king's choices are not what makes him great. It is how he reacts to those choices that do.”</p><p>When an unexpected visitor arrives in Asgard with news of an upcoming war, Thor, the newly crowned king of Asgard, quickly finds himself drawn into a world of political unrest and a royal family with a lot of secrets. Without knowing who he can trust, he sets out to protect his home from an unknown enemy, fighting both friend and foe in the battle for Asgard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to say upfront that my knowledge of the Marvel universe is limited to the movies so, while I tried to incorporate what I knew, I made up what I didn't. Some of the characters are completely invented by me and have no basis in the Marvel world whatsoever. Others I took out of context to suit the needs of my story. Normally, I would apologize for this; however, like Loki, I'm not sorry so I won't bother.
> 
> Also, I'd like to say that any similarities to Thor: The Dark World (aka, the real sequel to Thor) are purely coincidental. I started writing this before I knew anything about the upcoming movie and, as I've gained knowledge about it, I've tried to stay as far away from it as possible. However, since both my story and the real sequel are based on the same characters, I am certain that there will be similarities. Please know that they're not intentional.

The moon was at its peak when the guards changed places each night. Without fail, as the glowing orb reached its highest point in the sky, the night guards would leave their posts, ready for their beds, and the morning guards would take their places, the corners of their eyes still drooping with sleep. It never took long, only a twelve minutes to switch out fifty-seven guards, but twelve minutes was all she needed she told herself as she slipped out of her bed just before the stroke of midnight.

Her footsteps made little sound as she scurried across the throne room, her eyes furtively glancing from side to side as she crossed the grand space. At the edge of the hallway on the far side of the room, she took a few precious seconds to pause and listen, waiting until she was certain that the only sound she heard was the rapid beat of her own heart. Thought it cost time, it would not behoove her to be careless. Carelessness led to getting caught. And she could not afford to be caught.

She made her way down the oversized corridors, allowing her memory to lead the way. Left at the banquet hall, right at the armory. The moon's silvery tendrils cast her shadow into the pools of light on the floor as she ran but she barely noticed. She only had ten minutes.

The hallway abruptly terminated at a set of long, narrow stairs and she took them two at a time until she reached the top, where she found a single door. This was her mission; this was her purpose. Sparing one last look over her shoulder to ensure her privacy, she opened the door and slipped inside.

***

_Earlier that day..._

"Your majesty, there's someone here to see you."

Thor sighed heavily, closing his eyes against the glaring sun and city below. It had only been a fortnight since the All Father's death and already there were visits from ambassadors, priests, and nobleman, each offering condolences, gifts, and reassurances that their alliances still held firm. Even in times of grief, politics did not rest. It was exhausting for the new King of Asgard.

Thor waived his hand aimlessly before resuming his bird's eye watch over Asgard. "Send them away. I wish to see no one."

The guard swallowed audibly. "Your majesty, I understand your desire for solitude but I have been instructed by the Captain himself to escort you to the throne room."

"And who is the Captain's commander?" Thor asked sardonically, turning around to look at the young guard.

The guard swallowed again. "You are, sir."

Thor nodded brusquely before turning back to look over his kingdom. "You are dismissed."

The guard straightened and clicked his heels together. "Yes, your majesty."

Thor listened to the guard retreat, cocking his head slightly as he heard the door open behind him. "Who did you say was visiting?" he called out over his shoulder.

The guard stopped. "I didn't, your majesty, but it is one of the sovereigns from Vanaheim, the lady, Sigyn."

Thor stopped for a moment before turning to look at the guard, his eyes narrowed in confusion. "The lady, Sigyn?"

The guard nodded. "Yes, your majesty."

It was not unusual for sovereigns to visit in times of death. Like the others, they came to offer sympathy and support, using grief as an opportunity to meet the new king. But it was strange that the King of Vanaheim would send his only daughter, a girl who was, by all popular accounts, untested and uninterested in the political arena, as well as an unlikely candidate for the throne, being third in line after her newly born nephew.

Thor thought for a moment. It was a curious action, one that intrigued and enticed him. "I will see her," he said slowly. "Show her to the throne room."

The guard nodded again in return. "As you wish, your majesty."

***

The lady, Sigyn, bowed deeply as Thor entered the throne room and he watched her lower toward the floor as took his seat upon the great throne of Asgard. It still felt odd to be seated in such a chair, he thought as the gilded leather gave way underneath him. It was as if he were still a boy playing in his father's armor, ill-fitting and unmade for him. But, it was just another thing he would have to grow into.

"Rise, my lady, and tell me what news you have brought from Vanaheim," Thor called out as he settled into the throne, setting his faithful hammer, Mjolnir, at his feet.

The lady nodded softly and rose slowly, lifting her head to meet his eyes as she did. He involuntarily took in a sharp breath as the intensity of her beauty struck him, the guards around him doing the same as she stood. Her eyes were a crisp, emerald green and her skin sparkled like porcelain in the waning daylight. The fire from the room's torches cast golden shimmers off her jet black hair and her bosom rose firmly over a pleasantly rounded figure that moved gently as she approached the throne. She was, physically, one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.

"My lord," she responded in a voice that resonated off of the throne room walls like a bird's sweet cry, "I must first offer my father's condolences. Losing one's king is never an easy thing but losing one's parent is much harder. My father begs your forgiveness that he could not deliver this message himself but there are pressing matters at home that require his attention."

Thor nodded. "Thank you, my lady. Your condolences are much appreciated. What matters control your father's focus?"

"War, my lord," the lady answered quietly.

"War?" Thor repeated. "What war?"

"A war unlike any other," the lady, Sigyn, answered. "A war that stands to destroy the Nine Worlds as we know them in their entireties, beginning with Vanaheim."

Thor thought for a moment, choosing his answer carefully, the true purpose of her visit slowly dawning on him. "And you've come seeking aid."

Sigyn nodded gracefully. "Yes, my lord."

Thor went silent for a moment. "Vanaheim has long been Asgard's ally and, as such, it is, indeed, a troubling situation. But, I am a new bearer of my crown and your request comes at an ill time."

"War is inconvenient," Sigyn answered, her eyes narrowing as a slight edge settled into her voice.

Thor cocked his head at her. The little bird had claws, he thought to himself. "So it is. Who presses your borders, my lady? Surely, not the Svartalfar."

Sigyn shook her head. "No, my lord. The earthen elves are quiet. The threat comes from one of our own, my cousin, Malefort."

"Malefort?" Thor had known the man when he was a boy, having spent, himself, several summers on Vanaheim as a child with his mother. His memories of Mal were good ones, lazy afternoons fishing or exciting rides through the vast woods on magnificent stallions bred to carry kings. Three horses for three boys, he mused silently. But, those thoughts were better left alone at the moment, he told himself as he gave a passing glance at the hallway on the far right side of the throne room.

Sigyn followed Thor's eyes and saw him glance toward the distant hallway. "Yes, my lord," she continued as his eyes settled once again upon her. "Two summers ago, as you doubtlessly remember, my cousin, Mal, wed the lady, Morrigan."

Thor nodded. "Yes, I remember it well. Both of our worlds rejoiced."

"Indeed, they did and it has been said that there has never been a better match made in all of our histories combined. But, some three and a half months past, the lady caught a great fever. It moved through her swiftly and, within a matter of weeks, claimed her life, as well as the child's that she carried."

"I am sorry to hear that," Thor said gravely. "The Nine Worlds have suffered a great loss in her death. But, why was I not notified of this previously?"

"Your focus was otherwise engaged at the time," Sigyn responded, "with the slight issues of late on Midgard."

Thor nodded and glanced again at the hallway on the far side of the throne room. "I see. Continue, please."

"Obviously, my cousin was deeply distraught at Morrigan's death, having lost both wife he cherished so dearly and child he wanted so badly. And, as we both know, my lord, it is in these moments of despair that even the mightiest of us do desperate things." Sigyn paused for a moment, pressing her lips together.

"What has your cousin done, my lady?" Thor asked quietly, fearing and anticipating her answer at the same time.

Sigyn took a deep breath and released it slowly before speaking. "He has made a deal with the living dead herself, Hela, ruler of Hel. In exchange for the return of his wife, he has agreed to help Hela conquer the Nine Worlds, beginning with Vanaheim, followed by Asgard."

Thor's eyes went wide in surprise. "That's an ambitious plan. The Nine Worlds are not so easily conquered. What forces does he employ?"

Sigyn swallowed audibly and, for the first time since the beginning of their strange conversation, Thor noticed that she looked nervous. "He employs great numbers, my lord," she said after a bit. "Hela has given him control of her forces, including use of her Helhounds and any other creature at her disposal." She paused again. "He also has control of Vanaheim's army."

"The entire army?" Thor asked incredulously.

Sigyn nodded silently.

"How? Did your warriors defect?"

Sigyn shook her head. "No, my lord," she said quietly. "My father..." She paused again, adverting her eyes from Thor's. "My father denies my cousin's treachery. He still places the command of the army in my cousin's hands."

Thor stood up sharply, his eyes narrowed in anger. "What? Do you mean to tell me that you are here of your own accord?"

"No," Sigyn answered, her voice cracking nervously. "My father truly sends his most heartfelt condolences. But it is true that I requested to be the one to deliver them."

Thor glared at her. "My aid. For some imaginary war, some game you play -"

"It is not a game, I promise you," Sigyn responded pleadingly. "I have witnessed my cousin's treachery with my own eyes. It is as I have said."

"What proof have you?"

"My guards have witnessed -"

"Guards who are loyal to you," Thor spat out, shaking his head as he picked up his hammer. "We are done here, my lady. Please tell your father I thank him for his condolences."

"Please!" Sigyn shouted, rushing to place herself in Thor's path, halting his progression. "Please," she said again, staring up imploringly at him. "I do not lie, my lord. I promise. My cousin, Hela, it is all true. My father is blinded by Mal. He regards my cousin as a son. Surely you, son of Odin, can understand that kind of blindness."

Thor swallowed hard and glanced at the hallway on the opposite side of the throne room. As much as he wished he didn't, he did, indeed, understand that kind of blindness. "Without proof -"

"I offer my life as surety," she responded quietly, "if I speak falsely."

Thor looked down at her. "I will consult my advisors, though I do not think their answer in your favor."

Sigyn nodded gracefully in return. "Thank you, my lord. I can ask no more. If there is anything else you desire of me..." She reached out and lightly grazed the side of his hand with her fingertips, softly but deliberately.

Thor straightened stiffly and backed out of her reach. "No. I have all that I need. Good day, Lady Sigyn."

"Good day, King Thor," she responded. She watched as he quickly retreated from the throne room, slowing only to pick up his hammer, standing unmoving until he disappeared from her sight entirely.

***

Her footsteps made little sound as she scurried across the throne room, her eyes furtively glancing from side to side as she crossed the grand space. As she paused at the edge of the hallway, she recalled the map of the palace she had spent a week memorizing. Prior to her meeting with the king, Sigyn hadn't been quite sure where to start. There were few places the king would keep such a prisoner but even that small number would take precious time to explore, time she did not have. But, due to the king's numerous glances toward this specific hallway during their meeting, she thought that this was the most likely place of his traitor's imprisonment. And, when she came to the stairs, she knew she was right.

She quickly climbed them, looking over her shoulder one final time before she cracked open the single door at the top and slipped inside. She wasn't sure what she would find behind that door but, what she did, was even a surprise to her.

He was thin, thinner than he should have been. His dark hair hung in matted, ropey strands over his face and his skin was a pale yellow color that wasn't entirely caused by the flickering torch light. His hands were dirty and his wrists chafed where metal cuffs bound him to lengths of chain secured firmly to the wall. As she shut the door behind her, he looked up sharply, catching her gaze for the first time, and she saw that his blue eyes were rimmed with red and his face was hallow underneath gag he wore over his mouth. The sight of him made her stop short. "My god," she whispered as she crossed the room and knelt at his side. "What have they done to you?"

Loki watched her warily as she took a moment to run her thumb lightly over his brow before unsnapping the muzzle over his mouth. Loosening his stiff jaw, he watched through narrowed eyes as she seemingly shook herself into action and moved to the cuffs binding his wrists, quickly setting his hands in her lap as she pulled a pin from a pocket in her dress. "What do you want with me?" he asked as she worked at the locks, his voice hoarse from nonuse.

She glanced up at him. "An ally," she answered, releasing one of the locks and freeing his left wrist from its cuff.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "An ally? Don't you have that already in my brother?" When she gave him a surprised look, he grinned at her. "Just because I am imprisoned does not mean that I am ignorant. News travels fast in the palace of Asgard."

She stared at him for another moment but said nothing, eventually lowering her eyes again. Her heard her mutter, "Seven minutes," but then the other cuff on his wrist soon opened and she moved down to the cuffs binding his ankles.

He watched her intently, rubbing some of the soreness out of his wrists. "I remember you, when we were children," he said after a moment. "You used to follow my brother around like a puppy, waiting for any show of affection, nearly jumping out of your skin when he noticed you. What has he put you up to now, pet?"

Sigyn removed one of the cuffs from his ankles without bothering to look up. "Your brother did not send me. I am here of my own accord."

"Really?" Loki asked incredulously, a mocking grin pulling at the sides of his mouth. "I've heard the guards whisper in the hallway, the gossip they share about a young and beautiful Vanir princess come to offer herself to my brother in exchange for aid. Are you not one and the same?"

Sigyn gave him a quick, noiseless look before turning her attention back to the remaining cuff. As it cracked open, she removed it and cast it aside, pushing herself to her feet. "Can you stand?" she asked, holding her hand out.

Loki nodded and grabbed her hand, pushing himself to his feet. When she made to pull away, he gripped her hand more tightly. "To what do I owe this great pleasure, my lady?" he asked, bringing her captive hand to his chapped lips, where he pressed a dry kiss on to her smooth skin. "It has been awhile since I bedded a whore and I -"

"Silence!" Sigyn barked harshly, quickly holding the fingers of her free hand to his mouth, effectively halting his speech. "We don't have time for this."

Loki smiled and began to open his mouth to respond when, suddenly, he saw the tips of her fingers turn blue. As the blue color spread up her arm, a coldness washed across his face and he saw the tip of his own nose go blue as well. His smile quickly fell and he simply stared at her, eyes wide with shock.

For the first time since she'd entered his prison, she grinned at him as she dropped her hand and pulled herself free from his grasp. The blue immediately began to fade from both of their skins. "Perhaps you do not know as much as you thought, oh great verbose one," she said, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"Who are you?" he asked as she crossed the room quickly toward the door. "What are you?"

Sigyn paused at the door to look back at him, her eyes shining brightly in the flickering light as the last of the blue left her fingertips. "I'm your new best friend," she answered with an iniquitous smile. "Now, are you coming?"

Loki stared at her for a brief moment before crossing the room quickly and following her through the door.


	2. Chapter 2

"And, in other news, New York City continues to rebuild after the massive destruction caused three months ago by an alien race we now know as the Chitauri. While the cause of their attack is still undetermined, investigators now believe that there is a link between the Chitauri and an energy source called the Tesseract..."

Jane Foster barely heard the television set as she scurried through the old car dealership she now called a laboratory, her head bent over a well-worn notebook filled with scribbled, nearly illegible notes. Pushing a piece of fallen hair back behind her ear, she paused long enough to pick up a pencil and add to the scribbles on the page before continuing her hurried walk. "Eric, did we ever get a new reading -"

Jane looked up and stopped abruptly when she saw her mentor and friend, Dr. Eric Selvig, sitting quietly, staring at the television set. "Eric?"

Eric barely heard Jane as he watched the news broadcast intently. It was so hard to digest, looking at the wreckage displayed on the screen. So many lives lost, so much damaged. And, it was his fault, at least partly, if not entirely. In such a sort amount of time, he'd been party to one of the most horrific attacks on mankind. If only he'd had a stronger heart...

"Eric."

A light hand on his shoulder caused Eric to jump and he tore his eyes away as though he were a child caught watching a scary movie he wasn't supposed to. "Sorry, Jane," he said, turning off the television. The laboratory immediately went silent. "I didn't hear you come in."

Jane looked down at Eric, noticing, not for the first time, how his pale skin had taken on a gauntness that she didn't like to see, how the dark circles under his eyes had grown, how his eyes looked duller than they had even yesterday. Like the rest of the world, she knew what had happened in New York. She knew of the invasion of the Chitauri and the destruction they had caused. But, unlike the rest of the world, she also knew of the involvement that Loki, Thor's brother, had had in the scheme. She knew of the power he had harnessed and how he had used that power to rob her mentor, among others, of their free will and force them to do horrible, unspeakable things, during their enslavement. She could only guess what kind of affect that was having on those people now. If the state of her mentor was any indication, it wasn't a good one.

"You look tired," Jane said quietly. "Did you get any rest last night?"

Eric shrugged and turned so Jane's hand fell off of his shoulder. "No better, no worse than usual."

Jane went silent. "It's not your fault, Eric," she said after a moment. "You know that. You're not responsible for what you did, it wasn't you -"

Eric held up his hand. "Jane, please. I know that. I'm fine. Really."

Jane bit her lip and stared at her mentor as he looked at anything but her. "Fine," she conceded after a bit. Moving efficiently back to her workstation, she sat down and started flipping through her notebook. "Did we ever get a new reading from the crater?"

"We got one last month," Eric answered.

"I'd like a new one, this week if we can manage it."

Eric sighed. "Jane, nothing has changed at the crater since last month. Or the month before that. Or the month before that."

At that exact moment, the front door of the laboratory burst open, giving way to Jane's assistant, Darcy Lewis. Her hair was wild and she wheezed as though she'd just run a marathon she hadn't trained for. "Guys!"

Jane jumped up. "What? What happened?"

"The crater," Darcy gasped, as she leaned over and put her hands on her knees. "Cloud thingies. The crater."

"What?" Jane said, rushing over to her assistant. "What did you say?"

"The crater," Darcy repeated. She finally gulped in a deep breath and looked up at Jane. "There's cloud thingies over the crater."

"Cloud thingies?" Eric asked.

Darcy nodded. "Yeah. You know, the big black circles. The ones that occurred before."

"Thor," Jane whispered. Without thinking, she raced to grab her coat and threw it on, pausing only to glance at Eric as she went out the door. "Are you coming?"

Eric nodded, following her out the door. The three of them climbed into the well-worn SUV that sat outside and, as Darcy drove them out of town, Jane caught his eye. "Nothing changed at the crater, huh?" she asked him with an ironic lift of her eyebrow.

Eric pursed his lips but said nothing.

***

For the third time in five minutes, Jane pulled an imaginary wrinkle out of her shirt and smoothed her hair behind her shoulders. Her heart beat wildly and she shifted restlessly from one foot to another as her eyes remained plastered on the edge of the crater. Here she was, she realized, Dr. Jane Foster, respected astrophysicist, and she was acting like such a girl. Silently, she berated herself and vowed that, when he appeared, she would remain cool, calm, and collected.

Of course, she did nothing of the sort.

The moment his blond head appeared in the dust cloud, she shouted and took off running for him at full speed. When she reached him, she threw her arms around his neck and felt a thrill run from her head to her toes when his strong arms encircled her back and lifted her off of her feet. She buried her head in his neck and breathed deeply, barely noticing as two tears slowly made their way down her cheeks. "Thor."

"Jane." Thor pulled her back slightly and pressed his lips to hers. Here was something familiar, here was where he felt at ease. All of the worries that came along with being a new king slipped from his shoulders and, for the moment, he was only what he was, a man in love.

They stayed that way for a few minutes, neither wanting to part, until Darcy cleared her throat loudly. "I hate to break up the party but I think there's a real dust storm coming in so we should probably get going, like, now."

Much to Jane's dismay, Darcy was right and, after Thor exchanged friendly hellos with Eric and Darcy, the four of them made their way back to the laboratory, walking through the door just as a wall of dust swept over the small town of Puerto Antiguo. Standing at the window, Darcy glanced over her shoulder at Thor. "That's a normal dust storm, right? Not someone coming in from Assguard?"

"Asgard," Thor corrected. "And, yes, it's a normal storm." Turning to Jane, he gestured toward the bathroom. "May I change?"

Jane nodded. "Yes. Your things are still in the closet."

He nodded with a smile, returning only moments later in a simple pair of jeans and a grey T-shirt. His muscles rippled underneath the stretched fabric and Jane felt herself begin to sway on her feet. When he took her hand and led her to the sofa, she resisted the urge to curl into his shoulder and rest her head, settling instead into the heavy weight of the arm he laid across her shoulders.

For the next several hours, the four of them talked, ate, and laughed. Jane and Darcy cried when Thor told them about his father and they went silent when he briefly mentioned the incident in New York. Darcy regaled them with stories from her college years and Jane filled Thor in on her research since he'd seen her last. Even Eric joined in, adding points to both conversations but carefully avoiding anything that occurred prior to the past three months. When all the food was gone and the conversation finally died out, they all went off to their separate spaces to sleep and Jane found herself smiling, really smiling, for the first time in months. Even the dusty wind outside couldn't shake her good mood and she found herself laughing as she and Thor rushed through it toward her tiny trailer.

"I see you're still living here," Thor said, closing the door firmly behind them as they entered the trailer.

"Temporarily," Jane responded automatically, dropping her jacket on the built in sofa.

"Of course," Thor answered with a smile.

Jane smiled back and, for a moment, they both went quiet. Jane found herself drawn into his deep blue eyes, a small knot twisting itself neatly in her stomach at the same time. "I've missed you," she said finally.

Thor nodded slightly. "I've missed you, too, Jane. I'm so sorry I couldn't come -"

Jane shook her head and held a finger up to his mouth. "Don't be. You saved Eric, you saved the world. You have nothing to be sorry about."

He nodded and Jane shifted her hand, sliding it around his neck as she rose to meet his lips with hers. For several minutes, they simply stood there in the middle of her trailer, kissing. She slid her hands down, over his chest, and he ran his hands up and down her back, holding her tightly. Unconsciously, Jane took a step backward toward her bed and Thor immediately took a step back, breaking all contact with her. "Jane -"

Jane looked up at him, startled. "What?"

Thor shook his head. "I can't. It wouldn't be right."

Confusion swamped her system and Jane looked at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean? I thought you and I, we -"

"No, I mean, yes, but no," Thor fumbled. He looked around for a second, before letting his eyes come to rest on her feet. "I'm sorry but I can't. Your virtue -"

Jane let out a laugh. "I'm not a virgin."

Thor straightened and his eyes narrowed angrily as he looked up at Jane's face. "Who? I will see to it that he -"

"It was mutual," Jane responded, reaching out for Thor's arm. "And not important. Come here."

Thor allowed himself to be pulled into Jane's embrace and, as she tugged him down on the bed, he soon forgot about anything except that moment.

Afterward, Jane laid next to him, her head on his warm shoulder and her arm draped lazily over his chest. She felt him breathing and, when she glanced up at him, she saw that he stared at the ceiling, his eyes focused on nothing in particular. "What are you thinking about?" she said.

Thor blinked. "Nothing."

Jane propped herself up on her elbow. "No, tell me."

Thor sighed and looked at her, pushing a piece of her hair back that had fallen forward. "I'm thinking about my father, the throne, Loki..."

Jane nodded. "How is he?"

Thor shook his head slightly. "I don't know. He won't talk to me. He just sits there, in that room, chained to the wall. My own brother, Jane. If only I could reach him, bring him back from whatever dark place he resides in..."

Jane smoothed her hand over his face. "It'll be okay, Thor. You'll see. It will all work out in the end."

Thor looked back at the ceiling and sighed. "I don't know, Jane. I just don't know."

Suddenly, a series of sharp knocks sounded throughout the tiny trailer and had both Jane and Thor reaching for any piece of clothing. As Jane threw his T-shirt over her head, Thor pulled on his jeans and pushed open the door of the tiny trailer. As he saw the two people standing just beyond the door, his eyes widened with surprise. "Volstagg, Sif. My friends, what are you doing here?"

The two warriors bowed slightly. "We are sorry to bother you at such an inconvenient time," Volstagg started.

"But you are needed back in Asgard," Sif finished, her eyes straying for a moment to Jane.

"What has happened?" Thor asked. "My mother, is she -"

"Your mother is fine," Sif interrupted, glancing back at Thor. "It is your brother."

"My brother?" Thor repeated.

Sif and Volstagg nodded in unison. "Yes," Sif answered. "Your brother, along with the lady, Sigyn, has gone missing."

***

He stumbled along behind her, tired and disoriented. She'd been leading him through the forest for hours, no food, no water, no horse to ease the journey. When he tripped over a log and fell to his knees, he cursed loudly and pushed at her hands when she tried to help him up. "No more," Loki said, rocking back so he was sitting on the ground. "I am tired. I need rest."

Sigyn folded her arms and looked down at him. "We are almost there. Just a few more minutes, I promise."

"You said that an hour ago," Loki answered.

Sigyn sighed and uncrossed her arms, kneeling down until she was staring into his eyes. "I promise," she repeated, holding out her hand.

With a disgruntled sigh, Loki shoved her hand away and pushed himself to his feet, resuming his stumbling walk behind her. Much to his surprise, a few minutes later they entered a clearing, where a tiny, abandoned cabin sat near the edge of the woods. She led him inside of it, latching the door behind them with a flimsy wooden board. "What is this place?" Loki asked, his eyes taking in the meager pieces of poorly made furniture.

"One of your father's old hunting cabins," Sigyn answered, stooping at the fireplace. "It hasn't been used in years."

Within seconds, a fire roared to life in the fireplace and Loki saw that someone had put a few basic supplies on the table, including two skeins of fresh water and some dried fruit. Without thinking, he grabbed one of the skeins and took a long drink, pausing to eat a few pieces of fruit before drinking again.

Sigyn watched him with interest. "I am sorry that I did not think to bring provisions. I thought your brother would have taken better care of you."

Loki set down the skein and looked over his shoulder at her but said nothing. She was an interesting problem, an apparent ally whom he could not trust. Yet he had no other option at the moment than to trust her. He was friendless in Asgard, a condemned war criminal who had few places to hide in all of the Nine Worlds. He could not afford to turn away from whatever option she offered. But, that did not mean that he couldn't take the opportunity to forge his own path if it presented itself. Out of the many things he was, he was neither fool nor follower.

Sigyn stood in the silence but, when it became clear that Loki wasn't going to speak, she picked up a small parcel and settled herself on to the edge of the tiny cot that sat in one corner of the room. "Come," she said, patting the cot. "Sit."

Loki sat facing her and watched as she opened the parcel and pulled out small jars and bandages. "For your wrists," she explained as she pushed up his sleeve. Her fingers gently spread the cool ointment over his skin and he immediately felt the pain in them lessen.

As she tied a bandage around that wrist and moved to his other, he found himself staring at her bowed head. "When did you discover what you are?" he asked.

"I have always known," she answered. "The truth of my parentage was never hidden from me as yours was from you."

"Did you know about my lineage as a child?"

She shook her head and began to wrap a bandage around his wrist. "No. I did not know what we shared until you killed Laufey. How are your ankles?"

"Sore," he answered. She pushed him back and lifted one of his legs, deftly removing his boot. "So," he continued as her fingers worked over his skin, "it was my dear daddy's death that fostered your change of allegiance."

Sigyn glanced at him as she pulled off his other boot. "I told you. I was never aligned with your brother."

Loki watched her with interest. "Really? Then what was with that little charade you pulled with the new king? Offering your condolences and most intimate sympathies all so you could free his murderous brother?"

Sigyn raised her eyebrow at him as she finished tying the bandage around his ankle and slid out from underneath his legs. Pulling another jar out of the parcel, she pushed it into his hands and stood. "Contrary to what you may believe, Loki, we are on the same side. We fight for the same things. Now put that on your face and try to get some rest. We leave in a few hours, at dawn." She left him lying on the cot and walked over to the window to look out into the darkness.

Loki watched her, spreading the ointment over the chafed areas on his face. "And what might those things be?" he asked.

"Justice. Atonement." She paused for a moment before turning her head to look him dead in the eyes. "And a ruler worthy of the crown."

He stared back at her. An interesting problem, indeed.

In the morning, they spoke little as they packed the rest of their provisions and readied themselves for travel. As they started through the woods, Loki finally broke the silence. "Where are going?"

"The Deadlands," Sigyn answered as she picked her way through the brush.

"The Deadlands?" Loki repeated, a bit astonished. "But, that is -"

"The only place your brother won't look for you," Sigyn finished. "I have secured lodging on the edge of it where we can wait in relative safety."

"Wait? For what?"

She looked over her shoulder at him. "For the opportune moment."


	3. Chapter 3

"Where is he? How did he get out?"

"Thor, we think -"

"I don't want to know what you think, I want to know how he got free and where he is now!" Thor pushed open the doors to his sitting room and stormed through them. Sif, Volstagg, and the other two members of his council, Fandral and Hogun, followed closely behind.

"Thor -"

"I want him back," Thor continued as he stomped around the room, pacing an endless circle around its perimeter. "I want he and Lady Sigyn back by morning. They or whoever them took couldn't have gotten far."

"But, Thor -"

"Go!" Thor roared, waving his hands at them. "And do not return until you have my brother!"

With a look of understanding between them, Sif and the Warriors Three left the room. Though they could do no more than they were already doing, they knew their friend well enough to know that, in his current state, he would not listen to reason, particularly when it came to his brother. For all of his shortcomings, Loki still held a dear place in Thor's heart and nothing could change that.

Once he was alone, Thor stopped pacing and dropped heavily on to one of the large sofas that sat around the fireplace, burying his face in his hands. Loki was gone. Again. Thor felt a familiar ache settle into his chest, the same one that had first found him when Loki had fallen into the abyss at the edge of the Bifrost. At the time, Thor had believed his brother to be lost forever. But, when he had heard of Loki's return in Midgard, hope replaced the ache and Thor immediately sought his father's permission to bring Loki back to Asgard. With Odin's blessing, a sorceress had used her powers to send Thor to Midgard and, once there, he had fought both friend and foe to bring his brother home.

And now Loki was gone. Again.

Had he been taken hostage? Had he gone of his own free will? Thor was not naïve enough to believe that his brother was entirely an innocent in this situation. But he was also not convinced that Loki orchestrated his own escape. Thor had been careful about the guards he placed near his brother, about the food he gave him, about the room he placed him in. One entrance, one exit. Bread and water with very little meat. Trusted soldiers who had been loyal to Thor for years.

How had his brother gotten free?

Thor sighed into his hands. He had so many questions and so few answers, not to mention the fact that he had no understanding of Lady Sigyn's involvement. Why had she come to Asgard? Was her plea for help a ruse to get to Loki or was she merely an innocent bystander who'd been swept up in the current? He couldn't be sure. The only thing he knew for certain was that she and his brother, the brother he had worked so hard to bring home, were gone and no one knew where.

The door to the sitting room opened. "I am in a black mood," Thor called out without raising his head or opening his eyes. "Pray you return some other time."

Whoever it was did not listen and, instead, padded quietly across the room, stopping in front of him. When soft familiar hands framed his face, Thor opened his eyes and lifted his head. "Mother."

"My son." Frigga softly kissed his brow and then seated herself next to him, threading her arm through his and covering one his large hands with hers. "You are troubled."

"Loki is gone," Thor said simply.

"Yes, I know," Frigga answered. "And I pray for his safe return."

"As do I."

Frigga gently smoothed the skin on the back of her son's hand, feeling the tension beneath her fingers. "There is something else."

Thor sighed and fell silent. "I feel lost," he said quietly after a moment. "I know not what should be done, which way I should go. I have many questions and no way of guessing the right answers. If only Father were here -"

"But he's not, Thor," Frigga interrupted. "Your father didn't always know the right answers, either. Sometimes, he had to make difficult choices and, sometimes, he chose wrong. But, a king's choices are not what makes him great. It is how he reacts to those choices that do."

She reached up and gently turned her son's face until she was staring into his eyes. "You will be a great king, my son. I have faith in you." She stood and leaned over to press her motherly kiss on his forehead. "Make sure you get some rest," she whispered before turning and leaving as quietly as she had come.

Thor watched the door close behind her before standing and walking over the terrace. Below him, he could see the city of Asgard stretching in out in every direction and, in the distance, he could see the recently repaired Bifrost gleaming like a beacon through the dark of the night. His mother was right. His father was gone and now he had to stand behind the choices he made, right or wrong. With a final glance out over Asgard, he turned and bellowed, "Guard!"

A young Asgardian scurried through the door. "Yes, your majesty!"

"I wish to send a message to king of Vanaheim," Thor said. "Tell him that his daughter, the lady, Sigyn, and my brother have gone missing. Tell him..." He paused for a moment, considering his words carefully. "Tell him that we would call upon our alliance and welcome any aid in finding them. Send our swiftest messenger immediately and bring the king's response to me as soon as our man has returned."

"Yes, your majesty!" The guard nodded zealously before scurrying back out of the room.

Alone again, Thor turned back to gaze over Asgard. If he knew the king, and he thought he did, the king would send his best soldiers to aid in the search for his daughter. They would be led by a great commander, the single most person that the king trusted more than anyone else in his army, his nephew, Malefort.

It was one of his first important decisions as king. And Thor could only hope that he was making the right one. 

***

Most would recall that the Vanir king showed no emotion as he received the news of his daughter's disappearance. In principle, he was a quiet man anyway so, as the Asgardian messenger relayed the news, the king sat on his throne, his weathered face seemingly chiseled in granite. But, those who knew him best saw the way that the right side of his jaw tightened and released again, the way that his left eye twitched, the way his fingers curled slightly before re-straightening. Those who knew him best saw the way that he carefully measured out his words to the messenger, wasting not a single one on his answer. It was brief but clear. Asgard would have their aid in the form of the Vanir prince, Malefort, and his Black Dragons, the most skilled warriors in the Vanir army.

Once the messenger left the room to make ready for his immediate departure back to Asgard, the king wordlessly stepped down from his throne and pulled his wife into his arms. She cried silently against his shoulder, her body shaking with voiceless sobs as he held her. How long they stood there, no one quite knew but, finally, the king pulled back long enough to look at his nephew standing nearby. "Bring her home, Mal," he whispered, his eyes glimmering with tears. "Bring her home."

Mal nodded and turned on his heel, his long dark mourning robes fanning out behind him as he strode briskly from the room. His cousin, Sigyn, was missing. Why was he not completely surprised?

He thought his uncle had been a fool to send her to Asgard. His younger cousin had always been impertinent and hasty, characteristics she'd had since childhood. She made rash decisions and swift judgments, often following her heart when her head couldn't keep up. She was wild, a bit uncouth at times, strong-willed, and had the tendency to grate on his nerves. But, Mal had to admit that his cousin was no fool and behind her constantly shifting eyes laid a mind that was as sharp as a new brass tack. So, what was she up to now?

Mal wove his way through the palace to his private suite, contemplating the never ending frustration that was his cousin. As he walked, a pair of footsteps fell in line with his and he glanced over to see his aide, Nathaniel, walking along next to him. Like most of his trusted advisors, Mal had been friends with Nathaniel since childhood. They had grown up as equals, learning to fish and hunt together, both orphans, though from very different beginnings. Mal was the son of the king's sister, taken in by his uncle at the age of six when both of his parents died of the fever. Nathaniel was the bastard of a local nobleman, gifted by his mother to the palace at the tender age of four when she could no longer afford to feed him. Mal often wondered if Nathaniel ever sought out his mother again but he never said and Mal never asked. It was one of the many unspoken rules of their friendship, that the past stay in the past.

"I've heard that your uncle is sending you on a goose chase," Nathaniel said as he matched Mal stride for stride.

Mal sighed. "Something like that. Sigyn has disappeared."

"Disappeared or run away?" Nathaniel asked.

"Is there a difference?" Mal muttered as he pushed open the door to his suite.

Nathaniel chuckled as he closed the door behind them. "You have to give your cousin some credit. She hasn't changed much since she was a girl."

"And that is the problem, is it not?" Mal responded as he opened his wardrobe and began moving select garments he wanted for the trip. "This is, what, the eightieth time I have gone chasing after Sigyn? If she were my daughter, I'd nail her skirts to the floor and glue her into her dress."

"She'd just find a way to rip the fabric," Nathaniel answered. "Rumors are circulating, though, that your uncle was quite upset about her departure this time, more so than others."

"Supposedly, she's run off with the new king of Asgard's brother, Loki."

"The war criminal?" Nathaniel asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

"The same," Mal answered nonchalantly.

"You don't believe it to be true?"

Mal shook his head as he laid a pair of trousers on his bed. "No, I don't. She's probably been waylaid by some new species of bird she spotted or the need to join a group of archers she saw at target practice on her way home. You know how she is."

Nathaniel nodded. "Yes, I do. But I also know that she's a great deal smarter than you often give her credit for. She's proven you wrong many a time before."

"True," Mal acknowledged as he went back to the wardrobe, "but what purpose would she have to run off with the fallen prince of Asgard? He's a traitor to his own brother and his deeds are known throughout the Nine Worlds. He is unwelcome anywhere he dare show his face. It doesn't make any sense that she would do such a thing."

Nathaniel shook his head slowly. "No, I suppose not."

"So, there you have it," Mal answered as he shut the doors to his wardrobe. "Would you send word to my men? I wish to leave in the morning at dawn."

"Of course," Nathaniel answered with a nod. "Do you need anything else before I retire for the evening?"

Mal shook his head. "No, my friend. Sleep well."

Nathaniel smiled. "You, too."

Once he was alone, Mal finished packing his belongings for travel and prepared for bed. At the very least, he hoped it would be a short trip to find his cousin. As he shuffled across his room and fell into his bed, he looked over at the empty space next to him and felt an ache settle into the bottom of his stomach. There was a time, not so long ago, that his bed was occupied, that his heart was full. Now there was nothing and he was alone.

"I miss you," he murmured as he touched the empty pillow that lay next to his, the same words he'd said every night for the past three months.

And, like every night, the only answer he got was the cold, empty silence of his dark, lonely room.

***

He met her in the old dungeons underneath the Vanaheim palace when the moon was at its highest in the sky. It was the same place they'd met for months, dark enough to cover their clandestine activities yet easily accessible for each of them to go come and go as needed. It was dangerous, for certain, to meet in the palace but he knew that few people even knew this place existed and even fewer dared to visit it. Undoubtedly, the rumors of ghosts and nightwalkers kept them at bay, stories he himself had been careful to perpetuate to ensure the dungeons' privacy.

"I don't understand," he said angrily as he listened to her explain the reason for their impromptu meeting. "All of our months of planning, everything we've been working for..."

"It is a necessary delay," she answered, her red eyes glinting in the flickering torch light. 

"It is not!" he exploded, his voice reverberating off of the close stone walls. "Without Sigyn, it is one less person we have to worry about!"

"Without Sigyn," she answered calmly, "our agreement is null and void. I told you from the very beginning that I wanted the entire royal family dead or our deal was off."

"But the Vanir army would never support her, even if she were the last legitimate royal heir alive," he answered, his teeth grinding together in anger. "You have nothing to fear from her. She is a stupid little girl with no real mettle."

"And yet she managed to evade your spies and sneak off with the mad prince of Asgard in the middle of the night," she answered with smirk. "Or so rumor has it."

He glared at her for a moment. "That was a fluke. The Black Dragons leave in the morning to aid in the search for her and I am confident that we will return with her in a day or two."

She smiled at him. "And, if that is the case, we can continue forward with our original plan to claim the Vanir throne on the king's name day. But, if she is not found and returned to Vanaheim by then, we will reposition our efforts for another time." She turned to leave. "Contact me upon the lady's return."

He reached out to stop her. "But, mistress -"

Hela whirled around, her red eyes flaring as she knocked his hand off of her arm. "Do not presume such familiarity with me! I could crush you like a beetle without a second thought and still sleep like a babe tonight. Do not tempt me. I told you from the beginning what my terms were and you agreed to them. The time for negotiations has passed."

He stared at her for a moment before sighing in reluctant agreement. "Fine."

She straightened. "Good. Now get some sleep, my prince of shadows. And contact me when your relative has been returned to her bed."

He nodded curtly and watched as Hela turned and faded into the darkness, standing there until she was long gone. As always, his problems boiled down to Sigyn. Sigyn and her damn follies. As he strode back to his bedchambers, he cursed her name and vowed that, when the time came, he would strangle her himself.

***

The Black Dragons gathered to leave as the first rays of light peeked over the horizon the next morning. As he made one final check over his horse, Mal felt a hand tap him on the shoulder and turned to see his cousin, Simon, standing behind him. "It is early for you, Simon," Mal said with some surprise. "What brings you out at this hour?"

Sigyn's older brother looked at Mal. "I wanted to see you off."

Mal smiled. "That's very kind of you, Simon."

Simon nodded and stared at his feet for a moment. "I would come with you if I could but, with the baby…"

Mal nodded. "I know, Simon. You're a father now. You have to think about your son."

Simon smiled with obvious relief. "Yes." There were other reasons that Simon couldn’t come along, why he had never come along, but neither of them mentioned it. Mal had known when Simon was very young that there was something different about his cousin, a simpleness that most people did not have. It wasn’t so much that Simon was stupid or dumb but more that he didn’t understand the world and its nuances. He was always a bit slow to get a joke, often took things literally that were not meant to be taken as such, and had trouble navigating any type of conversation that involved more than a few people. Mal and Simon were only three years apart in age but most people thought them different by a decade. There was a time that Simon had even been mistaken for Mal's son. Mal often wondered what kind of king this simpleness would make of his cousin but it was not his place to decide. The royal succession of Vanaheim always fell to the first born.

Mal reached out and patted his cousin lightly on the shoulder. "Well, I must be off. Take care of the family while I'm gone."

Simon nodded. "I will. Have a safe journey, my cousin. I pray you find my sister swiftly and unharmed."

"As do I." Mal mounted his horse and, with a final nod at Simon, left the stables to join the rest of the Black Dragons as they gathered in the courtyard.

As he paused to wait for the rest of the men, he heard a horse coming up beside him and looked to over find Nathaniel staring at him. "What did Simon want?" Nathaniel asked, gently pulling his horse to a stop.

"To see us off," Mal answered.

"Kind of him," Nathaniel mused. "It's too bad he can't join us."

"He regrets it as well," Mal responded.

"Of course he does." Nathaniel went silent for a moment. "It will be a difficult path for the king who cannot ride to war with his army," he said finally.

Mal cocked his eyebrow at his advisor. "Nathaniel..."

Nathaniel shrugged his shoulders. "Just making an observation. People tend to follow those who they feel can defend them."

Mal sighed and looked back over his men. "People also tend to hate usurpers."

"You have a legitimate claim," Nathaniel responded quietly. "You are a full-blooded member of the royal family."

Mal shook his head. "No, it is not my place. We have had this conversation before. Simon will be the next king of Vanaheim."

Nathaniel shrugged again as he nudged his mount into a slow walk. "As you say, my prince."

A half hour later, the Black Dragons were making their way out of Vanaheim and into the vast, grassy plains that separated them from the city of Asgard. As he rode, Mal thought about his cousin and the throne. As much as he liked to deny it, he knew that Nathaniel had a valid point. He did have a legal claim to the Vanir crown should he choose to pursue dethroning his cousin. He also knew that there were several in the city who disagreed with Simon's eventual rule and would provide him with the necessary support should he go that route. He liked to think that, upon his uncle's death, he would do the right thing and defend his cousin's right to rule but he also knew how tempting power could be when it was so easy to take. With a final glance over his shoulder as Vanaheim disappeared from view, he spurred his horse on and looked forward toward Asgard.


	4. Chapter 4

Thor met Malefort in the throne room two days after the Black Dragons had left Vanaheim. He hadn’t seen the Vanir prince since they had been teenage boys but he would have recognized him regardless. Mal had always been tall and broad, much like Thor himself, but had dark hair and fair eyes like Loki. The years hadn’t changed him much and, as Mal entered the throne room, Thor could still see the boy he grew up with underneath the man’s veneer. Mal had been a kind boy, always looking after his cousins, and honest to a fault. But, that didn't mean that the man was the same, Thor thought as he shook Mal's hand. People changed over the years, grew bitter or desperate as fate toyed with their lives.

"King," Mal said, bowing his head as he grasped Thor's hand. "It is good to see you again. I am sorry for your loss."

"As I am for yours, friend," Thor responded as he shook Mal's hand. "I heard about your wife, your unborn child."

Mal acknowledged Thor’s words with another nod as the two of them dropped their hands. "Thank you. It seems that it has been difficult for all of us as of late."

Thor nodded. "Yes, so it seems. I have readied a suite of rooms for you and your men, where you can rest before dinner -"

"If it's all the same to you," Mal interrupted, "I'd prefer to get started. I am hoping to have my cousin home for my uncle's name day at the end of the week so time is of the essence."

"Of course," Thor said, gesturing toward a table with a large map of Asgard spread across it. "Let me show you where we've already looked."

Thor and Mal went over the map for an hour, discussing the most likely places where Sigyn and Loki would be and forming a search plan. Mal and his Dragons would cover the outlying areas, since they were less familiar with the city, while Thor and his council would concentrate their efforts on Asgard itself. Afterward, Mal and his men took in a quick meal before taking their leave from the palace. As they rode through the streets of Asgard, Thor watched them from the balcony off of his sitting room. He stood quietly, hoping that they found his brother and the lady quickly, fearing that they would not.

"Where are you Loki?" he muttered as he watched the Black Dragons' banner disappear from his sight. "And what have you gotten yourself into now?"

***

It took them three days of hard travel to reach the border of the Deadlands and each footstep was more dangerous than the last. The terrain was rough and ragged and, at night, they listened to the forest's fearsome creatures howl and moan. On the third night, wispy clouds blanketed the full moon and, as Sigyn poked at their meager fire, she studied it carefully. "Rain is coming," she murmured after a bit. "Maybe tomorrow evening, maybe the day after."

Loki glanced at the sky before popping another berry into his mouth, chewing it briefly before swallowing it down. "How much further do we have to go?"

"Half a day's walk once we're inside the borders," she answered. "We should get there by tomorrow evening, an hour or two before sunset. But, we'll have to be mindful of the time."

He nodded. He understood. Once they were inside the Deadlands, their already perilous journey would become infinitely more dangerous. Being caught outside after dark in the Deadlands meant almost certain death. If a creature didn't kill you, the nightwalkers certainly would. More fearsome than the living dead, nightwalkers fed on your most intimate fears and used them to drive you to the brink of insanity before ripping your still-beating heart out of your chest and eating it. It was a terrible way to die and one he didn't intend on experiencing. "What will we do once we get there?" he asked as he popped another berry into his mouth.

She glanced at him before looking back at the crackling fire. "I've made agreements with some of the people at a nearby village. They'll bring us basic supplies and food every few days, as well as any news they hear from Vanaheim and Asgard."

He waited for a moment. "And then?"

She shrugged. "And then we wait."

"For?"

"The opportune moment."

Loki sighed in anger and frustration. "You know, we've been traveling for three days now and you've refused to tell me anything useful about our situation. My patience will only stay for so long. So what holds your tongue? Do you have some great, viable plan that will make this harrowing journey worthwhile? Or are you just some little girl playing at war so you can make your daddy proud of you?"

Her eyes flashed with anger in the firelight. "Do not assume that we share common motivations, son of Odin. If you recall, it was I who set you free."

He narrowed his eyes briefly at her before he leaned back against the trunk of a fallen tree and pushed another berry between his lips. "Yes," he muttered with disdain as he chewed on his dinner, "you set me free from one prison only to force me into another. How grateful I am."

Sigyn stared at him for a moment. "I didn't have to," she said. "I did it by choice. And because I needed an ally."

"Then tell me," Loki answered in return, meeting her eyes over the fire once again. "I am of no use to you ignorant."

"You are of great use to me, informed or not," Sigyn responded. "Though I suppose it wouldn't hurt to increase your value. Tell me, jotun, what do you know of the situation in Vana-"

Sigyn broke off sharply as something snapped behind her in the woods and pushed to her feet. "Your brother?" she half asked Loki as she turned around, straining to see beyond the circle of light cast by their campfire.

Loki stood slowly and shook his head as a low, throaty growl sounded from the darkness. "We would be so lucky," he answered as another, slightly different growl sounded from his left. He picked up a piece of wood from the fire and held it aloft like a torch. "These are something much worse."

As Sigyn moved around the fire toward him, she kept scanning the darkened woods. She saw at least three, possibly four, large shadows prowling around their camp in a slow circle and heard a steady rumble of low growls. "What are they?" she asked quietly.

"If my guess is correct, wolves," Loki answered, his eyes likewise following the large shapes through the darkness.

"Wolves?" Sigyn repeated with incredulity as she came to a stop next to him. "But they are too large."

"Not if they are Fenris wolves."

Sigyn felt her heart skip a beat. According to legend, Fenris wolves were said to be abnormally large in strength and size, sometimes standing twice as tall as an Asgardian. They were said to possess extremely aggressive natures and could crush a man with a single bite. She'd never seen one before in person but, given the size of the shadows that circled them, it wasn't a completely farfetched thought. There was only one problem. "Loki, Fenris wolves haven't been seen in Asgard for over a thousand years. They were banished to -"

"Hel," Loki finished, catching her eye. She nodded and they both fell silent, watching as the large, hulking shapes circled their camp just beyond the edge of light.

***

Thor crushed the note in his hand, biting back his anger. The letter had been from Volstagg, sent by raven early that morning, and said the same thing that every other note had said. There was no sign of Loki, no trace of Sigyn. He and the other Warriors would now head north until they reached the place where they would regroup with the Black Dragons and return to Asgard.

Thor took a deep breath and willed his palm to relax. Four days had gone by since the search had commenced and the only thing he knew for certain was that the pair had left the palace together, witnessed by a stable boy who had slept in the barn that night to tend to a sick horse. From that, Thor assumed that they were still traveling as one but that was only an assumption and spoke nothing about motive or intention, journey or destination. Any other conjectures he had about the situation were mere speculations and poor ones at that.

As he smoothed out the note and set it on his father's desk, a knock sounded at his door and he motioned for the guard to open it. Sif flowed in quietly, pausing to curtsey halfway across the room. "My king."

"Sif, please," Thor said, "do not stand on such formality with me. I am still your friend."

Sif smiled at him as she rose. "But you are also my king now."

"But I have been your friend longer than I have been king."

"And I have been a citizen of Asgard longer than you have been my friend. Must we go through this every time?"

Thor smiled at her. "Yes, we must."

Sif raised her eyebrow at him. "I would call you incorrigible if I were allowed."

"It is a good thing that I am king, then. Come, my friend. Join me and tell me your news."

Sif sat across from him on one of the large sofas that dwarfed the king's parlor. "I am afraid that I do not have much to tell. I have finished interviewing the palace household in its entirety but have not learned anything new."

Thor nodded his head slowly as he sank back into the sofa. "Volstagg, Hogan, and Fandral have found nothing as well. They head north now to meet with Malefort."

Sif sighed but said nothing, adverting her eyes to stare at the empty fireplace.

"You might as well say it," Thor said.

"I should be with them," Sif responded, turning her head to stare at him. "I am a Warrior."

"Yes, you are," Thor answered. "One of the finest. Which is why I needed you here."

"But I am better at -"

"Determining truths and exposing the unspoken word," Thor interrupted. "Plainly put, you are the most observant member of my council." 

"Fandral is observant," Sif pointed out, the corners of her mouth pulling upward in a small grin.

Thor couldn't help but return her smile. "Yes but only of those with ample bosoms. I needed someone less biased. Though," he said as his smile fell, "I would employ your Warrior strength now for a most important assignment."

"What is it?"

Thor went silent for a moment. "I would like you to keep watch over Jane," he said quietly.

"Thor -"

Thor pushed to his feet to cut her off. "I cannot go myself and I fear bringing her here. I need someone I trust to watch over her. I need to know that she's safe. Will you go?"

Sif took a deep breath and stilled for a brief moment before answering, "I cannot say no."

"You could," Thor responded. "It is a personal favor, not the will of a king."

Sif looked up at him. "I will not say no," she amended.

Thor bowed his head in her direction. "I am forever in your debt."

Sif bowed her head at him as she rose. "I shall leave within the hour."

"I shall tell Heimdall of your imminent departure." As Sif brushed past him on her way to the door, Thor caught her arm. "Thank you, my friend."

Sif nodded again before pulling out of his grasp. She would keep Jane safe to the best of her ability, though not for the reasons that Thor assumed. Friendship had nothing to do with it.

***

"They're late."

Mal glanced over to where Nathaniel paced a small but steady ring in a circle of nearby grass. "Patience, my friend," Mal said. "They will come. They are honored Warriors. They will not fail."

Nathaniel sighed. "I know. I suppose I am just anxious. It difficult to sit and wait when we should be looking for her."

Mal couldn't have agreed more though he would not voice his thought to his already discontented friend. They'd spent nearly a week unsuccessfully searching for his cousin, literally finding no trace of her, and Mal could feel the beginning of his men's restlessness. Not only had they missed the king's name day but, what was originally supposed to be a short trip, was quickly turning into something much longer than any of them had anticipated. And it was all to locate a girl who, historically, had been frivolous and wasteful with his men's time.

But, instead of agreeing with his friend, he motioned to a nearby log that his men had rolled around the campfire. "Come, Nathaniel, sit. They will come. Do not expend your energy on what you cannot change."

Nathaniel reluctantly took a seat next to Mal. For the last day, they'd been awaiting the arrival of Thor's Warriors, Volstagg, Hogun, and Fandral. The last they'd heard, the trio had finished searching the eastern region and were headed north to rendezvous with the Black Dragons. But that had been nearly two days ago and their own raven, the one they sent with word to the Warriors, returned earlier that morning, the note stating that the Black Dragons were ready to return to Asgard still firmly attached to its leg. Mal had allowed the group to voice no opinions on the situation but, now that it was just the two of them, Nathaniel looked over at his longtime friend. "Mal, I know you don't want to consider it but -"

"They are great Warriors, Nathaniel," Mal interrupted. "They will come."

Nathaniel sighed impatiently. "Why will you not even consider the possibility?"

"Because the alternative is something terrible," Mal answered quietly after a moment. "It means that there is something great, something great and powerful in those woods that could kill three highly skilled Warriors."

"They are not immortal," Nathaniel pointed out.

"No, they are not," Mal agreed. "But it is highly unlikely that all three of them would perish in the same battle."

"And if that is the case?"

Mal paused for a moment. "Then may the gods have mercy on us all for we would not survive a meeting with such a killer of Warriors."

Nathaniel raised his eyebrows at Mal but remained silent.

The rest of the day passed quietly and, around midnight, Mal finally fell into a fitful sleep. A check of his men's supplies before bed told him that he couldn't justify waiting much longer and that, if the Warriors did not appear by noon the following day, he would have to begin the journey back to Asgard without them.

It wasn't until the moon was halfway through its journey on the opposite end of the sky that a cacophony of shouts and screeching metal brought Mal out of his sleep. Throwing off his blanket, he immediately reached for his sword and pushed to his feet, spinning to face the sound. In the glaze of the firelight's dim glow, he could make out bodies rushing around and ran to join the fray, whatever it might be. As he got closer, he could saw that his men had gathered in a semi circle and ran straight into the center of it. Much to his surprise, when he got there, laying on the ground was a Warrior, Fandral, he believed, surrounded by the other two Warriors, Nathaniel, and his field surgeon, Mikael. "What happened here?" he asked.

The red-headed Warrior, Volstagg, looked up. "Injured."

"How?"

Volstagg shook his head and took one of the water skeins that someone held out to him, drinking deeply from it. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he responded when he came up for air.

Mal raised his eyebrow. "Try me."

"Wolves," the other Warrior, Hogun, answered quietly.

"Wolves?" Mal repeated.

"Wolves," Volstagg agreed.

"But not just any wolves," Hogun added. He shared a quiet glance with Volstagg, who nodded at him.

"Well?" Mal asked.

Hogun took a deep breath. "Fenris wolves."

And with those two words, the entire camp fell silent and a chilling howl pierced the night air from deep in the forest beyond.

"But Fenris wolves are extinct here on Asgard," Mal said.

"We know," Hogun answered.

"But they were Fenris just the same," Volstagg added. "As tall as two Asgardians with paws the size of boulders and teeth as long as my forearm."

Mal was about to respond to the Warrior when his surgeon stood up and wiped his hands on his apron. "He'll be fine, I think," he said, pointing to Fandral, who lay unconscious on the ground. "He should wake up in the morning. He'll be in a great deal of pain but he appears to have sustained no internal injuries other than a broken rib or two."

"We cannot wait until the morning," Hogun said, pushing to his feet. "We must move. Tonight."

"I do not recommend moving him while unconscious," Mikael responded with a glance at Mal. "While I am confident in my assessment, I cannot be certain until he awakes."

"I agree with Hogun," Volstagg added. "We cannot wait. These wolves are large and travel at great speeds. We were lucky to get away from them as it was."

"How did you escape them?" Nathaniel asked, pushing to his feel as well. "Fenris wolves are not known to let go of their prey."

"We don't know," Volstagg answered, a puzzled look on his face. "We were tracking what appeared to be two people traveling north toward the Deadlands when the wolves emerged from the trees with no warning. It was like they just appeared."

"Appeared?" Nathaniel asked incredulously. "Certainly creatures of this great size would make considerable noise."

"I do not disagree with you," Volstagg answered. "But that is what occurred. One minute we were walking through the forest and the next we were faced with three large wolves."

Nathaniel was about to respond when Mal cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Continue, Warrior."

"We fought them as best we could but it was a losing battle on our end. Fandral was knocked down by one of them and I thought it was the end for him, for all of us. But, just as the wolf was about to deliver the killing blow, the beasts straightened as though they heard something and abruptly jutted off into the forest."

"And they did not return for you?"

Volstagg shook his head. "No, they did not, though we did not wait for their return either. We have heard them following us, however, their howls growing closer by the hour and, given the nature of the Fenris, I do not think it in our best interest to allow them to catch up to us."

Mal looked at his surgeon as another howl pierced through the night air. "It is up to you, sir," Mikael said. "I will do as you ask."

Mal looked around at the faces of his men, many of which read shock, fear, or a combination of both, before looking back at Mikael. "Prepare him for travel. We leave for Asgard tonight."


	5. Chapter 5

Jane watched as Sif drained her seventh cup of coffee. "You Asgardians sure like coffee," Jane muttered.

Sif looked up from where she leaned against the counter next to the coffee machine. The assistant, Darcy, had shown her how to use the creator of coffee the night before and the Warrior had given up any pretense of wanting to do anything other than drink the hot, black syrup it produced. "This drink? 'Tis good." She began to raise her arm but lowered it quickly as Jane jumped to her feet. For some strange reason, throwing one's tableware on the ground was not an accepted gesture in Midgard.

Jane sat back down on her stool, thankful that the Warrior hadn't broken another one of her coffee mugs. She'd lost eight before she'd finally been able to dissuade Sif of the idea that it was good manners to break them on the ground after finishing their contents. "You don't have coffee in Asgard?" she asked.

Sif shook her head as she poured her eighth cup of the day. "No. Wine and water but no coffee."

"Well, maybe you should grow some in Asgard," Jane said. "Thor likes coffee, too."

"He does?" Sif asked, looking up from her cup.

Jane nodded. "Yeah."

Sif frowned as she took a sip from her cup. "I did not know he liked coffee," she said half to herself.

Jane looked at Sif's bowed head before she turned back to her work. Since Sif had shown up on Jane's doorstep yesterday afternoon, their conversation had been sprinkled with off the cuff remarks like that. Sif hadn't know that Thor ate Pop Tarts or knew how to turn on a computer or watched entertainment wrestling on the television. She hadn't known a lot of things and it gave Jane an overwhelming sense of just how different his life on Asgard, his real life, was from the life he lived with her. It was almost as if he were two different people, an Asgardian king and a Midgardian mortal. And, from what she could tell, the two did not mingle.

The two of them spent the next hour in silence as Jane read through her notebooks and Sif drank more coffee. Finally, around noon, Jane looked up from her reading. "Are you hungry for lunch? I thought maybe we could go to the café around the corner."

Sif nodded. "Yes. That sounds enjoyable."

Twenty minutes later, Jane sat opened mouthed and listened as the Warrior rattled off an order that included almost every dish on the menu except for the cheese enchiladas. "Have to watch my figure, you know," Sif said with a small smile.

Jane nodded dumbly and, when the waitress turned to her, quietly ordered a burger and fries.

As the waitress left them alone, Sif turned to her. "So, Thor tells me you are a great scientist."

Jane smiled. "Well, I don't know that I would consider myself a great scientist but I am a scientist."

"What do you study?"

"Astrophysics," she answered.

Sif nodded. "That explains why you were studying the night sky last night."

"Last night?" Jane repeated. "But I waited until everyone was asleep. How did you..."

"I was sent here to watch over you as a personal favor to a friend, "Sif answered. "I will not fail him."

Jane took a nervous sip of her soda. "Any other time you've watched me that I don't know about?"

Sif looked plainly at her. "I do not believe so."

Jane nodded and the two of them fell into an uneasy silence for a moment before Jane said, "So, you are a Warrior."

Sif nodded. "Yes."

"What is that exactly?"

"We are soldiers," Sif answered, "and some of the finest swords in Asgard. Highly trained in defense, fighting, and military tactics, we were once the companions of the king's son. And now we are the king's protectors and personal militia as well as his council."

"Sounds important," Jane said.

Sif shrugged. "It is my duty as well as my honor."

"Hmm," Jane answered, unsure of what else to say.

The two of them spent the rest of the meal in relative silence, Jane watching as Sif devoured every last morsel that the waitress put in front of her. When they were done, they walked back to the laboratory and took up the same positions they had been in before, Jane at her desk, Sif next to the coffee machine.

And so the next few days passed. Sif drank coffee, Jane worked. Darcy and Eric floated in and out, popping in with new photos or theories or research. They ate lunch at the café each day and took turns cooking at night. When Darcy and Eric were asleep, Sif would follow Jane up to the roof and watch as the mortal looked through her telescope at the stars. It was a quiet life, a little too quiet for Sif, and, while she would not let Thor down, by the time the sun rose on her fourth day on Midgard, she found herself ready for something to occur. It was just her luck that something did.

It was Darcy, of course, who announced his imminent arrival. True to form, she arrived out of breath, bursting through the laboratory doors as the last of the sun's light left the sky. This time, however, she cut straight to the point. "Thor's coming," she wheezed, pointing absently over her shoulder in the general direction of the crater.

Sif nearly dropped her coffee mug on the counter and Jane almost knocked her chair over as she stood. Simultaneously, they pushed through the laboratory's doors and got into the SUV that Darcy had left running, Jane in the driver's seat and Sif in the passenger. As Eric and a winded Darcy piled into the back, Jane threw the vehicle into drive and sped through town toward the crater.

He was already there when they arrived. Standing tall, the moonlight dancing off of his plated armor, Jane's heart couldn't help but skip a beat as she caught sight him. Lord, would he always have this affect on her? As she ran up to him, he caught her in his arms but, instead of the kiss she was expecting, he squeezed her briefly before releasing her and turning to the Warrior, who bowed deeply in front of him.

"My king," Sif said.

"Sif," Thor answered. Jane's heart dropped a bit as she watched as him nod at Eric and Darcy briefly before turning his attention back to the Asgardian female. "I have news."

"Your brother?" Sif asked, her eyes going wide.

"Yes," Thor answered. "And no." He glanced around the sky before his eyes settled on the SUV. "Let us get back to the town. This is not something I wish to discuss in the open."

Sif nodded. "Understood. Come, we will return to the village."

Without even looking at her, Thor fell into step with Sif and Jane watched as the two of them strode toward the vehicle.

"Well, don't I feel important," Darcy muttered, coming to a stop on Jane's left. "He didn't even say hello."

"Jane," Eric said. He touched her right arm gently. "We should go."

Jane barely felt or heard either of them. Instead, her eyes were plastered on the two forms that now stood close to each other just outside of the SUV, their heads bowed as they talked quietly. It was strange to see him with Sif, someone from his own world. It made him look different, as though he'd changed, even though he wore the same clothes, had the same face, the same hair.

"Jane," Eric nudged her arm again.

She shook herself out of her reverie. "Right," she said, absently brushing her hair out of her face. "Sure. Let's get going."

With Eric and Darcy by her side, Jane walked back to the SUV and opened the driver side door. As she got in, she felt something brush her hand and looked over to see Thor give her a quick, familiar smile before he got into the back with Sif. She smiled back at him but even that couldn't replace the feeling that there was something different about him now, something she couldn't quite see.

The ride back into town was swift and quiet. It wasn't until they were all seated in the lab that Thor began to tell them why he had come. "My brother, Loki, has disappeared with a lady named Sigyn."

Sif nodded while Jane and Darcy looked at Thor with confusion. "Who's Sigyn?" Darcy asked.

"Vanir princess," Eric muttered.

Thor nodded his head. "Yes. She is a princess of Vanaheim, a neighbor to Asgard. A few weeks ago, she came to me in what I thought was an offer of condolences for my father's passing. Instead, what she really sought was an ally in war."

"An imaginary war," Sif added.

"It was not imaginary," Thor responded quietly.

Sif looked at him. "But, you, yourself, said -"

"I was wrong."

Thor's words hung heavy in the air as everyone fell silent. Finally, Sif said quietly, "What do you mean?"

"There is a war coming," Thor said after a moment. "A war unlike any other we have ever faced." Thor paused again before looking across the room into Sif's eyes. "There are Fenris wolves in Asgardian forests."

Sif's eyes went wide with shock. "What?"

"What're those?" Jane asked, her eyes bouncing between the two Asgardians.

"Ferris wolves?" Darcy muttered.

"Fenris wolves," Thor corrected. "They are fearsome creatures. They stand twice as tall as Asgardian men and could rip my arm off in a single bite. They were banished to Hel over a thousand years ago, never to be seen in Asgard again. At least, not until a few nights ago."

"What happened?" Sif asked.

"The Warriors Three were attacked by a group of them out of nowhere," Thor answered. "They didn't even hear them coming. According to Volstagg and Hogun, one minutes they weren't there and the next they were, like they appeared out of thin air."

"Fandral?" Sif asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"Injured but stable," Thor responded. "He has many surface wounds and three broken ribs but he will survive to fight another day."

Sif sagged with relief. "So how did the wolves get to Asgard?" she asked.

"I don't know," Thor answered. "Some sort of black magic, perhaps, or a kind of -"

"Portal."

Everyone looked at Darcy, who calmly leaned back against the couch and began to pick at her nails. "It makes the most sense, right?" she continued, ignoring their shocked faces. "Loki jumped around the universe using the Tesser-thingy, you have that rainbow bridge. It makes sense that these wolves were brought to Assgard using the same type of thing. You just said that the wolves weren't there but then were. Maybe Volkstag and those other guys ran into this portal as the wolves were coming through."

Everyone was silent until Thor nodded his head graciously in Darcy's direction. "Thank you, Darcy. That is an excellent theory."

"Any time," she muttered as she stuck her thumb in her mouth to bite at a hangnail.

"But, who would have access to a portal into Asgard?" Sif asked. "Particularly one we don't know about?"

"That is an excellent question," Thor answered.

***

"Fenris wolves?" he spat out. "You sent Fenris wolves into Asgard?"

"Was that not the plan?" she asked, her eyes wide with feigned innocence.

He looked at her, his eyes flashing with anger. "You know it wasn't. You said yourself that you -"

"Would not send them on the king's name day," she finished. "I didn't. I waited over a week."

He glared at her for a moment. "You could have told me they were coming."

Hela smiled at him, her red robes pooling around her feet. "You were occupied."

"Doing what you told me to," he shot back. "Searching for Sigyn."

"And surround by Dragons, no less," she continued on as if he hadn't spoken. "I couldn't risk my message being intercepted by one of them."

"They almost killed three Asgardian Warriors," he said, his eyes moving wildly in the flickering torchlight that he held aloft.

She lifted her eyebrows at him. "And?"

"And those beasts could have come for me!"

Hela waved a hand nonchalantly in his direction. "They would not have come for you. Those beasts, as you call them, had a very specific task to fulfill while on Asgard and, unlike you, they completed it splendidly."

"And what task would that be?"

"Information," she answered.

"What kind of information?" he asked.

"The kind I wanted to informed of," she answered.

He waited to speak until it became clear that she wasn't going to say more. Though he wanted to press her on the matter, he knew better. "So what do we do next?" he asked instead.

"We don't do anything," Hela answered. "The wheels of war have been set in motion and I consider your obligations fulfilled. It is now my turn to uphold my end our bargain."

His eyes went wide with uncertainty. "What do you mean? The Vanir royal family is not dead."

She smiled at him, her red eyes glowing softly in the Asgardian night. "Oh, but they are. As of a half an hour ago, the Vanir king breathed his last while the queen went silently in her sleep. The king's son, his wife, and their babe are making their journeys to Valhalla as we speak. It is a gloriously tragic day for kingdom of Vanaheim."

He went silent for a moment as he let the news sink in. "And Sigyn?" he asked quietly, his heart beating rapidly.

At that moment, a howl pierced the night air. Hela closed her eyes and leaned her head back, basking in the sound. "She is no longer a concern," she said, her eyes opening as a smile lit her face. "Have a good evening, my prince. As always, the pleasure was mine."

He watched as she turned away from him, uncertain of what to do next, feelings of immeasurable loss and grief and anger choking his throat all at once. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen, he thought as tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. She wasn't supposed to die. Sigyn wasn't actually supposed to die. It ruined everything. Hela had ruined everything. And, suddenly, he understood. "You knew," he said quietly.

Hela turned around and smiled at him, her red eyes glowing. "But of course. How else were you going to claim the throne? Rely on your blood? You'd have trouble proving it with the entire royal family gone. So you were going to marry your cousin as reinforcement."

He looked at her carefully. "Why?"

She walked back into the light. "Do you think that I am not fully aware of how quickly our agreement would have dissolved once you had secured your cousin's hand in marriage? Now, I am assured of your allegiance if you ever want to see yourself seated on the throne of Vanaheim. Though I must confess that I am a bit surprised at your response. I can see now that I underestimated how deeply your feelings for her ran."

He looked away without answering and Hela laughed. "Cheer up, my prince! It is not nearly as bad as it seems. You may have lost a woman but you will gain a nation. You will be their king. And I will be your dear friend through it all."

He looked back at her, realizing for the first time just how badly he had misjudged his opponent. "This was your intention, all along."

She nodded, reaching up to touch his face. "Yes. And you played your part beautifully, showing me ways into the Vanir palace, providing me with information on your relatives. You have been most helpful and will be greatly rewarded for your service."

He wanted to recoil from her touch but forced himself to stand there and stare at her as he caught a glimpse into his future. He would be a king, yes, but he would also be her puppet, bending to her every whim, as enslaved to her as the people of Vanaheim would be.

It was in that moment that he began to hate her.

"I will keep in touch," she said, moving back out of the light and into the darkness of the forest until the only thing he could see were her glowing eyes. "Take care, my friend. The future is bright indeed."


	6. Chapter 6

The news of the Vanir royal family's death swept through Asgard like a storm. By the time Thor returned from Midgard the next morning, every corner of the kingdom had heard of the murders and undercurrents of fear and panic were palpable in the people. And while the Warriors were doing their best to keep the peace, the same emotions were written on Volstagg and Hogun's faces as they met Thor at the end of the Bifrost.

"My king," Volstagg said with a deep bow. "It is very good to see you."

"Friends," Thor responded. "How are the people?"

"Worried," Hogun said simply as he rose from his own bow.

Thor nodded. "As I suspected."

"Fandral?" Sif asked as she came to a stop next to Thor.

"Alive and awake," Volstagg answered. "Some pain but he's healing well. Malefort's surgeon, Mikael, thinks he will be able to leave his bed in another week."

"Mal is still here?" Thor asked. "I thought he would have returned to Vanaheim after the death of his family. 

"He was awaiting your return," Volstagg answered. "I believe he wishes to seek your counsel before taking his leave."

"Then I will go to him now," Thor answered. He turned around and looked at the three mortals behind him, all of whom were standing with wide eyes as they took in their surroundings. "My friends, Sif will show you to your rooms. Please do not hesitate to ask if you require anything."

Three heads nodded in response and his eyes lingered for a moment on Jane, who stood clutching her duffel bag to her chest. She looked so tiny in comparison to the palace of Asgard and Thor was struck with an overwhelming urge to protect her from the harsh realities of his world and hers. But, he reminded himself as he turned away, his duty was no longer only to his own desires. He had an entire kingdom to keep safe now, an alliance to solidify, and a possible war to fight. In short, he had to be a king.

Jane watched as Thor walked away, his head bowed in conference with Volstagg and Hogun. He fit so much better here, she thought as his armor reflected the golden glow of the torches lit throughout the palace. On Earth, he was large and slightly out of place. But here, with the gargantuan walls and grand statues, he was in place. He was home.

"Jane, are you coming?"

Jane looked over to where Sif, Darcy, and Eric stood, staring at her. "Yeah," she answered, nodding her head. "Yeah, I'm coming."

Her room turned out to be a space that was larger than her entire laboratory. The bathroom was twice the size of her trailer and the closet made her duffel bag looked like it was miniature sized. As she laid her head back on the mountain of pillows at the head of the bed, Jane had the overwhelming sensation that she could easily be swallowed up by the duvet alone. When a knock sounded through her room, she gratefully left the engulfing piece of furniture and pulled open the large door.

Darcy swept in without an invitation, her eyes roaming over the walls of Jane's room. "Oh. My. God. Your room is even bigger than mine."

Jane looked around as she closed the door and ran her hand through her hair. "Yeah, it's pretty big."

Darcy turned around. "Pretty big? Holy balls, Jane! This place is huge! It's, like, bigger than the Superdome and that place is pretty big."

She looked around her room once again. "Yes, I guess," she muttered. Big, she thought as her eyes took in the walls and windows. Too big for her. She didn't fit here. Everything was the wrong size.

Darcy raised her eyebrow at her. "Are you okay, Jane? You seem off."

Jane nodded her head, forcing herself to glance at Darcy. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"You sure? You've been spacing out all day."

Jane nodded again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. It's been a long day."

"That's for sure," Darcy readily agreed. "Come on. Let's go see Eric's room."

***

"I am so very sorry for your loss," Thor said as he clasped Mal tightly around the shoulders.

Mal nodded as he pulled back from the king, his eyes glistening in the light from the open window. It was difficult to believe still that the family he left behind in Vanaheim was gone. His uncle, his aunt. Simon. "Thank you for your condolences. They are much appreciated."

"Unfortunately, they do little to ease the ache," Thor responded. "I know. But, should you need aid or shelter in the coming weeks, know that Asgard will ever be at the ready."

Mal nodded. "Thank you. If what my cousin told you comes to fruition, it appears that we may. I will send word back to you as soon as I am able."

"And I will continue the search for your cousin here," Thor answered. "A group of men led by Hogun and Volstagg are scheduled to depart this evening to pick up on Sigyn and Loki's trail where the Warriors last lost it near the Deadlands."

Mal shook his head in disbelief. "I find it hard to believe that my cousin would even go near a place like that, not to mention enter it. She's heard the stories, grew up on them like I did. She knows how dangerous it is."

Thor looked at Mal. "And that may be precisely why she and Loki chose to go there. It is dangerous and a place we were highly unlikely to look. In fact, we would have passed it by entirely had Hogun not stumbled upon the remnants of one of their campfires."

Mal nodded. "Very true." With a sigh, he looked around the room once before his eyes landed back on Thor. "I fear that the time for departure can be delayed no longer. Thank you, friend, for your kindness and your hospitality."

Thor grasped the other man's hand tightly and shook it. "Good luck to you, Malefort. I pray that you find peace inside Vanaheim's walls."

"To you, as well," Mal said as he released Thor's hand. "I pray you find your brother."

The Black Dragons left Asgard just as the sun kissed the horizon. At the same time, Volstagg and Hogun led a small group of men north out of Asgard. Their horses ran swift over the well-known ground and it wasn't until well after nightfall that they stopped to make camp for the night. "We'll sleep in shifts like normal, lads," Volstagg called out once the fire had been stoked and the horses watered. "Elbert, you and Magni will take the first watch."

A hooded figure stood up from the crowd. "Elbert was unable to make it," a very familiar, very female voice called out from underneath the dark cloth.

Hogun turned his head sharply while Volstagg simply raised his eyebrow. "He won't be happy you're gone, you know."

Sif pulled back the hood of her cloak. "I know," she answered with a smile. "That's why I didn't tell him."

Volstagg shook his head. "You are incorrigible, Sif."

Sif laid her cloak out on the ground and took up a seat next to Magni, the young soldier she was to share her watch with. "I am where I belong," she answered, her eyes automatically beginning to roam the hillside surrounding their camp. "Now go to sleep." 

Volstagg didn't argue with her. Instead, he pressed a heavy hand on her shoulder as he walked by on his way to bed and said quietly, "It is good to you have you with us, lady."

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, her eyes never stopping their scan. "It is good to be back," she answered softly.

It took them just almost three full days to reach the place where Volstagg and Hogun had left off before. They could have covered the terrain more quickly had it not been for fear of the wolves. They hadn't heard the creatures at all during their journey but that did not mean that the beasts were not in the forest. Fenris wolves were not stupid animals and it was not uncommon for them to hunt in near silence, particularly as they closed in on their prey.

As they closed in on their location, the Warriors led the group even more slowly, surveying the area as thoroughly as possible before moving on. "Of course," Sif pointed out as they moved through one section of the forest, "if the wolves came through a portal, this is all for naught."

Volstagg and Hogun said nothing but the truth was written on their faces. If there was such a portal, not only was their exercise of caution for naught but their entire trip was as well, for it was highly unlikely that they could escape the wolves twice.

They reached the old campsite an hour before sundown and Hogun immediately knelt to the ground and began reviewing the patterns the pair's footprints had left behind. "They were definitely here," Hogun said after a minute. "Both of them." He stood up and looked around. "They arrived just before sundown and stayed until..."

Hogun fell silent as his eyes skimmed around the perimeter of the campsite. "What is it?" Volstagg asked after a moment. "What do you see?"

"There are other prints," Hogun muttered as he walked into the brush. "Animal prints of some sort. Large animal prints." As it dawned on him, he looked over at the other two Warriors. "Fenris wolves."

"Were they killed?" Sif asked.

"We would have found their bodies," Volstagg answered.

Hogun shook his head as he walked back into the campsite. "No, they weren't killed. The wolves appeared to have circled them a few times before moving on."

"Incredible," Sif nearly whispered.

"That's the same thing that happened to us," Volstagg added.

Hogun nodded his head. "Yes, it appears to be very similar. Now, there is one more pair of prints leading away from the campsite..."

"To the Deadlands?" Sif asked.

Hogun shook his head. "No, in fact, just the opposite." He looked up again at his fellow Warriors. "They appear to be leading straight back to Asgard."

***

Hogun was right. They never made it to the Deadlands. That night, as the wolves ran away as if called by some invisible master, Loki stood staring in disbelief while Sigyn nearly vibrated with excitement next to him. "It's starting," she whispered.

"What's starting?" he asked, tearing his eyes away from the large, retreating forms to spare a glance in her direction.

"The war," she answered softly, her eyes shining as a smile lit her face. "It's starting." And, then, she did the most surprising thing.

She kissed him.

As her hands held him in place, she pressed her lips to his and, for a moment, he was too shocked to move. Then, as quickly as it happened, he pulled away. "What was that for?" he asked, eyeing her warily.

"That was for the future," she answered, her eyes closing as she lifted her face to the moonlight.

He went silent for a moment as he took a few steps back. "What game do you play?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

Loki narrowed his eyes at her. "What I mean is what do you hope to gain by this?"

She stared at him quizzically for a moment, unable to determine what he meant by the tone of his voice. "I hope the gain the same thing I have sought from the beginning," she answered finally. "An ally."

"In my brother," he spat out.

Her eyes immediately narrowed in anger, his meaning becoming clear. "Are you really that foolish?" she asked.

"What?" he said, his tone sharpening.

"You truly don't understand, do you?" she answered, her voice growing taunt with rage. "Has it ever occurred to you, in your vastly overrated intellect, that it was never your brother's affections I sought?"

"Your actions have shown differently," he retorted as he turned away from her to pace around the fire.

"So, it was not I that released your from your prison?" she responded in a mocking tone.

He whirled back around. "You attempted to lure my brother into bed when you first set foot on Asgard," he snarled.

"I attempted to ascertain how attached your brother was to his precious mortal girl," she fired back. "A very useful thing to know, I might add, when one is looking to overthrow a kingdom."

"So you mean to overthrow the king of Asgard," Loki answered snidely.

"I mean to rule an empire!" she shouted back at him, her eyes taking on a red glow as her skin turned blue at the edges. "I mean to have two frost giants sitting on the throne, ruling the entirety of Asgard as one! I mean to dispel our families from their current stations, through which means I care not, be it death or imprisonment. I mean to take back the thrones that should rightfully be ours, to rule and shape this world as we see fit, as is our due."

She went silent for a moment and Loki simply stared at her over the fire as she took a few deep breaths, her eyes and skin returning to normal. "All of the years," she started quietly, her eyes glancing up to meet his as she closed the distance between them. "All of the years that we sat aside and watched as our parents, our false parents, placed higher value on their blooded children, favored them though they did not deserve it. Do you know that I am actually older than Simon?" She stared at him for a moment. "It's true. I am a year his senior. But they pretended like I was the younger child, lied to an entire kingdom, because they could not bear to see a frost giant sitting on the throne of Vanaheim."

Loki looked down at her, recalling very similar words that he had said to his own false father. "How?" he finally asked.

"We will go to Jotunheim," she answered. "I have made an agreement with the jotuns' new leader, Fasolt. In return for their aid, once we have secured both the throne of Vanaheim and the throne of Asgard, we, as the new rulers of the empire, will give them back the Casket of Winters."

Loki raised an eyebrow at her. "I do not think that the jotuns will welcome me with favor," he said. "If you recall, I played a rather significant role in removing their last leader from power."

"If I recall, you played the only role," she answered. "Attempted to commit genocide against your own race, too, if my memory serves me correctly. Luckily for you, the jotuns are a forgiving people." 

"Odd, they didn't strike me as forgiving," he answered, his shoulders relaxing as his mouth turned up at the edges in a sort of smile.

"You underestimate the power of my persuasion," she answered, her mouth curling upward to match his. "And how desperately they want that casket of theirs back."

He looked down at her, weighing all that she offered him. He had underestimated her, he thought to himself. Her plan, while risky, was no more so than any other plan of this nature would be. A chance to reclaim his throne, to rule as he should, in exchange for a casket and a queen, the first of which he wouldn't miss and the second of which was proving herself to be a worthy partner. It was better than the plan he'd had with the Chitauri. "Then we should see to it that they get their casket," he said after a moment.

Her smile grew wider, knowing that she had won. "Yes, we should."

They left for Asgard in the morning. Because of the wolves and the search parties, their journey back took them a day longer than their previous one had but finally, underneath the dark cloak of night, they snuck back into the palace of Asgard. For a day, they took shelter in the dungeons of the palace, using the time to rest and restore themselves. Then, as Sif departed for Midgard on Thor's personal request to guard Jane, they snuck underneath Heimdall's careful watch and into Jotunheim.


	7. Chapter 7

The ride back to Vanaheim was quiet, each man consumed with his own thoughts. The younger soldiers thought mostly of their families but the older ones understood the issue ahead. The royal family had been murdered and their leader was one of only two royals left alive. It was likely that Mal would be a target the moment they entered the city and it was just as likely that some of the Dragons would be called upon to forfeit their life for his. That was part of their duty, part of their honor, but a man who did not look upon his death with disfavor was not a man worthy of his suit.

Like his men, Mal thought of what waited for them when they reached the city. His first concern was for the people, the second was for the throne and, as he let his mind wander over both, he found himself riding next to Nathaniel. When he glanced over at his old friend, the man's eyes were focused on the horizon and, surprisingly, his mouth was shut. "You're being uncharacteristically quiet," Mal said as his horse fell into step with Nathaniel's.

Nathaniel startled and looked over. "Sorry. I guess I don't have much to say."

Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "I've never known you not to have an opinion, solicited or otherwise. Are you feeling ill?"

Nathaniel shook his head. "No, not ill, really." He paused a moment before looking over at Mal. "How can you be so calm? Your family is dead. Your life is in jeopardy."

Mal looked away for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "I have already lost my family. There is nothing I can do to bring them back, no magic that will reanimate their bodies. All I have left are my men and my people. Being hysterical will do no good for either."

"Being hysterical is a normal emotion one typically feels after such a loss."

"And I was. Once."

Nathaniel sighed. "I'm sorry, Mal. I sometimes forget the greatness of your loss."

Mal nodded. "Most people do. It is easy to forget such a thing when it is not your tragedy."

"Mal, I didn't mean to say -"

Mal held up his hand to silence his friend. "No, it's okay. I was unnecessarily harsh. I'm not placing judgment but merely stating a fact."

Nathaniel nodded and the two fell silent as their horses plodded across a field. A soft a gentle breeze began to blow out of the east, bringing with it the smell of autumn leaves and the upcoming winter, and Mal let his thoughts once again wander to his people and his kingdom. One way or another, he would ensure their safety and take back the throne, if necessary. Failure was not an option.

The pair continued to ride in silence until dusk. As they crested the top of a hill, the sun dipped below the horizon and Nathaniel finally broke the silence. "I have been thinking," he said quietly.

Mal glanced over at him. "About what?"

Nathaniel paused for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was almost in a whisper. "I think you should go back to Asgard, Mal."

Mal looked over in surprise. "What?"

"I think you should go back to Asgard," Nathaniel repeated louder.

"We are a mere day from Vanaheim and you want us to turn around?" 

"No," Nathaniel said, stopping his horse to look at Mal. "Not me, not the men. Just you."

Mal stopped next to him and cocked his eyebrow in disbelief. "You want me to turn around? You are ill, indeed, if you think I will abandon my men at a time like this."

"It is not insanity to protect one's life," Nathaniel retorted. "You know you are a target from the moment we enter the city."

"If the insurgents are still there," Mal responded.

"It is not a question of if," Nathaniel answered. "It is a certainty."

"You do not know that."

"You are a fool to think otherwise." Nathaniel stared down his friend. "Do you honestly think that these people, whoever they are, have just left the city, knowing that two of its blooded royals are out in the world?" He shook his head. "No, they are there, waiting for us, waiting for you."

Mal stared back. "I will not turn around."

"Mal, you must give it consideration. There is no shame in -"

"Running like a pup with its tail between its legs?" Mal turned in his saddle and angrily spurred his horse forward. "I will not leave my men."

Nathaniel came up next to him. "You are being unreasonable."

"And you are suggesting that I act like a coward."

"It is not cowardice to run from certain loss."

Mal kicked his horse into a trot. "I wish to discuss this no further!" he called over his shoulder.

"You will cost men their lives, men who will die protecting you!" Nathaniel yelled back. "Mal!"

Mal shook his head and kicked his horse into a gallop, not stopping until he reached the front of the group. But, as he and his men rode in silence, he couldn't help but think of Nathaniel's words. As much as he hated it, there was some truth to what his friend had said. He was not a fool and knew that the possibility that the city was occupied by an unknown enemy was great. He also knew that there was a high chance of one of his men laying down their life for his if the encountered such an enemy. So, later that night, as the moon rose high in the darkened sky, he quietly untied his horse and, under the cover of his men's snores, continued on toward Vanaheim alone.

***

Nathaniel was awakened to the sound of someone shouting. "He's gone! Mal's gone!"

He sat up quickly, his heart racing, and, as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw Black Dragons moving quickly around him. Someone, Eldrick, one of the older Dragons, tugged on his arm and pulled him to his feet. "Come, sir. We must go."

Nathaniel stumbled a bit as Eldrick let go of his arm but finally found his feet. As the men broke camp, he found himself walking to the center of the cacophony, toward one of the younger men, Adler. "Stop," he croaked out weakly, his body still muddling through the last dregs of sleep.

Adler looked up from the fire pit he was covering up. "I'm sorry, sir?"

Nathaniel cleared his throat. "Stop," he said again, getting the words out more clearly this time.

"What?"

"Stop!" Nathaniel's voice carried loudly through the crisp autumn morning and, in a heartbeat, everyone stopped, the camp falling into silence.

"Sir?" Mikael, the surgeon, asked.

"Stop," Nathaniel repeated. He looked around at the men, seeing the faces he knew so well. He knew what they were planning to do, knew what they were all thinking. He'd been the one to train them to do so. "We can't just go after him."

Loud cries of protest rose up from the men. "But, sir, we can't just let him go! He's our leader! He's -"

"Going to end up dead if we're not careful," Nathaniel interrupted. As silence fell over the group again, he rubbed his hand over his forehead. "I've made such a mess of things," he muttered to himself. 

Eldrick stepped toward him. "Sir?"

Nathaniel looked up at the man. He was twenty years Nathaniel's senior but still a fine soldier and master strategist. He loomed over Nathaniel and the younger man felt himself grow smaller by the moment, like a son awaiting punishment from his father. His heart even beat faster as it knew what was coming. Finally, after a moment, he looked straight into Eldrick's eyes and said, "I know what's waiting in Vanaheim."

Eldrick studied him for a moment. "What have you done, Nathaniel?" he finally asked quietly.

Nathaniel closed his eyes, unable to look at the other man any longer. "Made a deal with the devil," he whispered.

***

It only took Mal a half a day to reach Vanaheim. He rode his horse until it was near death and abandoned it two miles outside of the city's walls. He felt sorry for the poor beast but it would either survive or die on its own. He didn't have the time to spare.

He went the last two miles on foot. At the entrance of the city, he looked around but didn't see anyone odd waiting for him. In fact, he didn't see anyone at all. As he passed through Vanaheim's gates, he found that the streets were empty, that the houses were dim, that the air was still. Wherever his people were, they weren't here.

He continued cautiously through the city, the streets remaining desolate as he neared the palace. About three blocks from the gates to the inner city, he ducked into an unremarkable house and locked the door behind him. The absence of people didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't being watched and it wouldn't do any good if he were caught prematurely.

Though the house looked like any other on its street, this house belonged to one of his older Dragons and held a secret that few knew of. Making his way through the house quickly, he entered the back bedroom of the small house and pushed the bed aside. He pried up a few of the floorboards with the tip of his sword, revealing a black hole in the earth underneath the house. Climbing into the hole, he did his best to replace the bed and the boards, though he knew that it wouldn't buy him much time if someone came into the house after him. But, in this situation, even minutes could count.

He ran through the pitch black tunnel as fast as he dared. Though it had been years since he'd traversed it, his feet automatically avoided the pitfalls in the earthen floor and his head ducked when the ceiling demanded it. After twenty minutes in complete darkness, shreds of light began to appear at the end of the tunnel and he knew he was close. After a few more minutes, he finally came to the end of the tunnel and he climbed the ladder that leaned against the wall. Pausing briefly, he pushed on the ceiling until the trap door there finally came loose.

He opened the door just a crack and peered through it. Sunshine scalded his eyes for a moment but, as he glanced around the room, he was relieved to find that it appeared to be empty. Pushing the door open, he exited the tunnel quickly and found himself standing in the middle of his bedroom.

Everything looked just as he had left it, which should have been relieving but, somehow, wasn't. As he closed the door behind him, he stood and listened for a moment. There was no sound in the palace, no footsteps of servants, no whispered tones of the household. Everything was quiet, a little too quiet, in his opinion. If the people weren't in the town and they weren't in the palace, where were they?

He stopped at his door and listened for a moment to the hallway beyond. Hearing nothing, he opened the door as quietly as he could, cringing with every creak that it made. When there was a gap large enough for him to slip through, he peered around the corner of the doorjamb and, seeing no one, slowing made his way into the hall, closing the door behind him.

Instinct told him to go toward the throne and so he did, keeping to the shadows as best he could even though the halls were cold and empty. Not even the rats were out and about, choosing to keep underground as if they also knew something wasn't right. As he neared the throne room, he began to hear the murmur of a few voices talking in hushed tones. He crept closer to the doorway, pausing just outside to listen.

"Next, we take Asgard."

"Next, we secure the throne of Vanaheim."

"The throne is secure. It is ours."

"It is not. Mal is still out there -"

"The Black Dragons are under attack as we speak. Malefort will be dead in a matter of minutes."

"Malefort is more clever than you think. We should not make our next move until confirmation of his death."

A third voice chimed in. "That could take days."

"Then it takes days. It is the safer move."

"Once Asgard has heard of Mal's death, they will reinforce their defenses. We should move while we have the element of surprise."

"We should wait."

"We should -"

Mal didn't hear the rest. Instead, he spun around just in time to block the sword that was already coming down on his neck. Raising his own, he parried the hit with a thrust, turning quickly to deflect the second attacker coming at him from the left. He heard a squeal as his sword hit home and realized that the sound he heard wasn't human. Focusing on his first attacker, he saw yellow eyes staring at him from a creature he didn't recognize. That didn't matter, of course, since they apparently died the same.

Just as he finished off his first attacker, two more creatures appeared at the end of the hall, running toward him at full speed. He heard more footsteps behind him and turned to find three more assailants at his back. Doing his best to fend them off, it wasn't long before five had turned into ten and ten had turned into twenty. Realizing that he was horribly outnumbered, he killed six more before his sword was torn from his hand and he was pushed against the wall. He felt a hundred tiny pricks all over his skin as the creatures surrounded him and poked at him with their swords but none delivered the killing blow. Finally, after a long moment, Mal fell to his knees and one of them immediately wrenched his arms behind his back, tying them securely with a length of rope. The poking ceased immediately and he was pulled roughly to his feet. Tired and bleeding, the creatures surrounded him and pushed him into the throne room.

The lights were dim and there were only four figures in the room, three of which sat in the shadows. The fourth stood in the light and Mal saw a tall, unfamiliar man with a long, flowing red cape around his shoulders. "Malefort, I presume."

Mal looked up at the man, who was a good two feet taller than his own height. "Shouldn't you already know?"

The man smiled. "I do. I was being polite."

Mal scowled at the man. "Polite is for friends and acquaintances. By partaking in my family's death, you have made yourself my enemy."

The man's smile grew wider and venom nearly dripped from his voice. "Oh, no, sir, you made yourself my enemy many years ago when you and your men descended upon a small village just outside of Muspell. You killed a great many innocents that day, a great many children, a girl child with her father's red eyes."

Mal looked into the man's own red eyes. "Innocent loss is an unfortunate casualty of war."

The man's smile stretched into a grimace as his eyes began to shift wildly and his voice got louder. "Innocent loss is an unnecessary casualty of war. You did not care who died that night, Malefort, you did not care what lives you ruined. You could have been more cautious but you opted to slay anything that blocked your path in your quest for glory. And now, you will be made to pay for your sins! You will be held accountable for the lives you ruined! You will be judged for the glory you took, for the innocent blood you spilled, for the carnage you -"

"Mephisto!"

The man stopped mid-sentence at the sound and, with a glance behind him, took a step back from Mal. As he stepped back, Mal saw a pair of glowing red eyes appear from the edges of the room and he acknowledged them with a tone that one might acknowledge a scorned ex-lover. "Hela."

"Malefort," she replied warmly. "I'm so glad you remember me. I wasn't sure you would."

"It's hard to forget the devil," he answered.

She laughed. "Charming as ever, Mal." She came into the light gazed down on him, her dark hair pulled away from her severe face. "The years have been kind to you," she said, "though fortune has not. I was sorry to hear of Morrigan's death."

Mal sneered at her. "Do not speak her name from your dirty mouth," he spat out.

She cocked her eyebrow at him, turning her grin into a sinister snare. "Morrigan," she whispered.

He growled at her and struggled against his bonds. "You foul demon! I will kill you!"

She laughed again as she stood as turned away from him. "Oh, Mal, if you only knew. It's a shame, really, that you never will."

He knew it was a teaser, a trap of sorts, but he couldn't help himself. "Knew what?"

She walked to the edge of the shadows before looking back at him. "Everyone has dirty secrets, Malefort, even those closest to us. For example..."

As she trailed off and joined Mephisto at the edge of the light, two other figures came forward. Mal watched with surprise as the figures came into the light and felt his jaw drop with shock as he focused in on one of the figures in particular. "Sigyn?"

Sigyn came to a stop in front of her kneeling cousin. "Mal."

He stared up at her in confusion. "Sigyn, what are you doing?"

She smiled at him. "What is necessary."

His eyes went wide as the implication of her words dawned on him. "You. You killed them? Your own family?"

"They're not my family." She grabbed his neck and, as her skin turned blue, he screamed in pain as the cold seared his skin. After a few seconds, she let go.

"I don't understand!" he gritted out as burn lingered on his skin. "Why? Why would you do this?"

"Because the throne was supposed to be mine!" she burst out. "I am the elder child, the true heir! But, the king couldn't let a frost giant sit on his precious throne so he lied. He lied to an entire kingdom, Malefort, and chose his idiot son over me, I who was and should be the rightful heir to Vanaheim."

He stared at her for a moment. "N-no," he stuttered. "It can't be true."

"It is true," she said. "Your beloved uncle was nothing but a bigoted old man who was willing to place the entirety of a kingdom into the hands of a simpleton just to keep the royal bloodlines pure."

Mal went silent for a moment. "Sigyn," he said finally, "there has to be another way. There has to be a better solution -"

"There is," she interrupted. "And I have already begun to pursue it. I am sorry that it has come to this, Mal, I really am. Your only mistake was trusting my father." She nodded at the creatures standing behind him.

Mal felt himself dragged backward and he fought his captors as best he could. "You can't do it alone, Sigyn!"

She glanced at him. "I won't be." She reached for the hand of the person standing next to her and, for the first time, Mal saw that it was none other than the fallen prince of Asgard himself, Loki.

"No," he called out. "No! You're making a terrible mistake! Sigyn!"

She looked at the guards who pulled him away. "Make it quick, will you? He deserves an end to his suffering." She looked back at him. "My regards to Morrigan. May you find her in Valhalla."


	8. Chapter 8

Thor did not see Jane until the next afternoon. He meant to speak to her after she had settled into her room but one thing led to another and, before he knew it, it was dark and halfway through the night. He walked by her room on way to his own but, as suspected, there was no light peering out from underneath her door. With a heavy heart, he went to bed that night and prayed that the morning would be better.

It wasn't. One of his guards awoke him with the news that Sif wasn't in the palace and it didn't take a fool to figure out where she had gone. He was torn between demanding her return and letting her continue with the other Warriors when another guard came to him with a report of sickness in the stables and the possibility of a dozen bad crops in the western region of the kingdom. He then had a meeting with the kingdom financier, another with the head of the palace kitchens, and a third with his private physician. By the time he was done, his stomach rumbled from the lack of breakfast and he found himself winding through the hallways of the palace toward the kitchens.

She came out of the observatory, her head buried in a book. The mere sight of her was enough to make him stop and Thor took a moment to appreciate her striking features and long brown hair, which had grown a few inches since their initial meeting. She was just as beautiful as she was the day that he'd first met her and he felt a stab of guilt at the fact that he hadn't been able to spend much time with her since then. He'd meant to; he'd meant to do a lot of things really, but fate had had different plans for him. Loki, Sigyn, his father...

He must have shifted or made some sort of noise because her head snapped up and she looked in his direction. When she spotted him, a tiny grin broke out of her face and he couldn't help but smile back. "Hello," he said.

"Hello, yourself," she responded. "Where are you headed?"

"To the kitchens," he answered. "Care to walk with me?"

"Sure," she said, falling into step with him.

"What are you studying?" he asked as they walked leisurely through the palace.

"Your sky," she answered. "There are a lot of stars that I've never seen before but there's also quite a few that I have. Apparently, we share at least part of the same sky."

"You sound surprised," he responded as they turned a corner and walked past the armory.

She smiled at him. "I am, I guess. At least, a little bit. This place seems so far away from home."

"It's not as far as you think," he answered. "The universe is a finite place."

"Well, there's a lot of people on Earth who would dispute that theory," she answered.

"'Tis not a theory, Jane. It's quite true."

"Of course it is," she answered, grinning up at him. "So, you've been busy."

He nodded. "Yes, I have. I am sorry that I haven't been able to attend to you and your friends personally. I find that my days of late are not my own."

"It's okay," she said. "Eric is fascinated with this whole place and keeps talking about legends and stories from his childhood while Darcy is, well, Darcy."

He let out a small laugh. "I would expect no less. How is Eric doing these days?" He looked meaningfully at her and she didn't have to wonder at what he meant.

"Better," she answered. "Not great and not back to normal but everyday he's a little more himself. Darcy and I, well, mostly I have tried to talk to him about what happened but he won't say."

"He may never," Thor responded. "The Tesseract affects everyone differently. It can turn mediocrity into genius and ambition into madness."

Jane looked up at him. "Is that why Loki left with this Vanir princess? Is he still being influenced by the Tesseract?"

"I do not know," he answered honestly. "It is possible but I know Loki too well to blame his disappearance entirely on the Tesseract. If there is mischief, Loki always seems to find a way to get himself involved."

They came to a stop just outside of the kitchens. "I have a few things I have to attend to this afternoon," Thor said, "but may I call on you after dinner?"

Jane smiled at him again. "Of course. Until then."

"Until then," he agreed. As he watched her slender form walk away, instead of feeling an expected rush of joy and happiness, he felt a strange sense of unease come over him. Shaking it off, he went into the kitchens, determined to get through his day so he could focus on Jane that evening.

***

Sweating and out of breath, Nathaniel finally dropped his sword to his side and doubled over on to his knees. As the smell of death rose up around him, he retched up what bit of breakfast he had in his stomach, spitting until his mouth was clear before standing upright again. They'd come out of nowhere. Gods in Valhalla, they'd come out of nowhere and caught the Dragons completely off guard. He should have seen it coming. He should have known.

The men had just sat down with their breakfasts to discuss what course of action they should pursue next when the camp had been swarmed by a group of gymir, vicious Hel-bound creatures with greenish-blue skin and violent red eyes. He'd never seen one in person before and the shock of seeing one in Asgard made Nathaniel pause briefly before unsheathing his sword. That delay, he thought with sorrow as he looked around the now bloody battlefield, had cost young Adler his life.

The boy had jumped in the way on the oncoming blade. He met the gymir's length of steel with his own but it was quickly clear that he was outmatched. It only took the creature three swings to bring the boy to his knees and one more to pierce his heart. By then, Nathaniel had his sword unsheathed and shoved its tip deep in the creature's abdomen but it was too late. Adler was already lying on the ground, shaking as blood poured out of his chest, and another creature was headed their way. Nathaniel had no choice but to leave the boy to die alone as he fought off their enemy.

Now that it was over, Nathaniel made his way through body parts and blood until he found where the boy laid near the dying fire. Adler's eyes were glassy and still as Nathaniel kneeled down next to him and gently pulled his lids shut. Too young, Nathaniel thought as remorse planted itself in his belly, even for a Dragon.

A pair of footsteps shuffled up behind him and Nathaniel turned his head to see Eldrick come to a stop behind him. The old warrior was dirty and spattered with the green blood of their enemy. "How many?" Nathaniel asked.

"Four," Eldrick answered. "Five are seriously wounded, two of which are in Mikael's hands."

"And the other three?"

Eldrick shook his head. "Not expected to make the night."

Nathaniel dropped his gaze and pushed to his feet. He had cost good men their lives. They did nothing to deserve the fate they received but follow a fool, a blind fool at that. He'd been so consumed with his own ambition that he'd never considered any other alternatives, like changing his mind. With a heavy, he looked at Eldrick. "It is all my fault."

Eldrick looked at the younger man briefly before surveying the wreckage around them. "I have been a soldier longer than you have had breath in your lungs, sire, and rarely have I found an event to be entirely the fault of a single individual."

Nathaniel looked up his elder. "But I am a traitor. I committed horrific acts against my crown, acts that served as precursor to today's tragedy."

Eldrick nodded. "You did commit terrible acts. But whether your acts were a precursor or not is yet to be determined."

Nathaniel raised his eyebrows in confusion and surprised. "I don't understand."

Eldrick took a deep breath before continuing. "There is a saying. There are three sides to every story, yours, mine, and the truth. I feel that this story may have many more sides than three. This morning, before the attack, you said that you had made a deal with Hela, a deal that was contingent on the confirmed deaths of the royal family."

Nathaniel nodded. "Yes."

"The royal family has not been confirmed dead, however," Eldrick responded.

"I told you," Nathaniel said with a sigh. "When we met a few nights past, she agreed to go forward with the plan regardless."

"Do you not think it odd?" Eldrick asked.

"Odd?"

Eldrick nodded. "Yes, odd. A plan this great, months in the planning, changed at a moment's notice? Particularly when she was unwilling to make the same change weeks ago? I find it a bit odd."

Nathaniel looked at the elder warrior. "What are you trying to say?"

Eldrick looked down at his companion. "What I am trying to say is that I believe these men would have died whether you turned on your crown or not."

"You believe there is someone else involved?" Nathaniel asked incredulously. "Another traitor?"

"Yet another side of the story," Eldrick answered.

"Who?"

Eldrick scanned the camp as soldiers began to move the bodies into a makeshift funeral pyre. "Who is left?"

"Malefort," Nathaniel answered. And, as it slowly dawned on him, his eyes widened with shock. "And Sigyn. But you don't think -"

"I think it is highly coincidental that she disappeared as the Fenris wolves appeared in the Asgardian forest," Eldrick said. "And, in my many years of service to my crown, I do not overly trust coincidences."

Nathaniel thought for a moment and tried to process what Eldrick has just told him. "But, that's not possible. She's just a girl."

"She has never been just a girl, sire," Eldrick responded with a raise of his eyebrows. "I know you know that. And I have known for some time that she is more canny than many have given her credit for."

Nathaniel shook his head in disbelief. "Sigyn. I just can't believe it..."

"Tell me, Nathaniel," Eldrick interrupted. "How much did she know of your plan? What did you discuss with her?"

Nathaniel slowly raised his eyes. "How did you know?"

Eldrick looked down again. "It would take a blind man not to see that your interest in her over the years has not been strictly platonic. How much did she know?"

Nathaniel took a shaky breath. "Everything."

Before Eldrick could answer, however, Mikael came up to the pair, wiping his blood stained hands on his dirty apron. He looked over his shoulder at the funeral pyre before looking back at the duo. "There'll be four more bodies to add to it before the lunch."

"I thought you were working on two," Nathaniel said.

"I was," Mikael answered. "Siimbl died during surgery. Bled out. I had no way of staunching the flow before it was too late."

Nathaniel sighed heavily with regret. "He was a good man."

"That he was," Mikael answered. "But, that's not why I've come to talk to you. I'd like to get going back to Asgard with Arraondal tonight with a small company of men. Our trip will take a longer amount of time since he will need to be kept stable and I do not want to slow the others with our progress. Plus, it would be beneficial to get him to a proper medical facility as quickly as possible."

"Yes, of course." Eldrick nodded in agreement before looking at Nathaniel. "Your thoughts, sire?"

Nathaniel looked at the two other men. "You don't need my permission. Do what you think is best."

Mikael nodded. "Thank you. I will take five soldiers plus Wilhelm. He is a capable assistant with a gentle touch. He will make a fine surgeon someday if he so chooses."

With another nod, Mikael left the two men and Nathaniel watched him as he walked away. "He goes to Asgard," he said to Eldrick once Mikael was out of earshot.

"Yes," Eldrick answered.

"Why?" 

"You told him to."

Nathaniel looked at the other man. "But I am a traitor."

Eldrick looked Nathaniel in the eye. "Should he not go to Asgard but make for Vanaheim instead?"

"No," Nathaniel answered immediately. "Asgard is safer. Gods only know what awaits us in Vanaheim."

"Then he will go to Asgard."

Nathaniel went silent for a moment. "You have great faith in someone who does not deserve it."

"I will determine whether my faith is misplaced or not," Eldrick answered. "Now, come. Let us help with the pyre."

***

Mal felt like his head was spinning as he was led out of the throne room. Hela, Loki, Sigyn. It was so much to take in and, yet, not enough. Sigyn, his younger cousin - or was it older? - had changed completely since the last time he saw her. Gone was any innocence in her eyes, replaced with a cold calculation he hadn't thought her possible of. She had always been intelligent and a bit mischievous but cruel? It wasn't the girl he knew, the girl he'd grown up with.

For a few moments, he allowed himself to be led through the palace, his hands tied behind his back, while his head tried to comprehend what had just happened. When he and his captors passed by the kitchens, his brain began to spin with other thoughts. He couldn't allow them to lead him to the dungeons. Once he was there, his chances of making it out alive greatly diminished.

Did he even want to make it out alive? The thought briefly crossed his mind along with an image of his wife. She was, without a doubt, in Valhalla, just as Sigyn had said. Didn't he want to join her? Hadn't he wanted it for some time? The last months without her had been horrible, a living hell that he couldn't escape. Wasn't this his chance?

Just as quickly, however, he thought of other things, reasons to keep fighting. His men, who would deeply mourn the loss of their leader; his cousin, however misguided she was, who would need understanding and guidance to be brought back from whatever dark place she resided in; his kingdom, who would need a soldier to protect them; and, most of all, his wife, who would not want him to die before his time. He could not give up so easily; he would not.

He knew when the moment came. He was being led down a long hallway in the east wing, nearing the stairwell to the dungeon. It was made entirely of stone and, though it appeared to be solid, he knew that there was a section at the end of it that opened to reveal hidden walkway, much like the one that led to his bedroom. Provided that Hela's minions hadn't discovered and infiltrated the tunnels yet, it was his best chance of getting out of the palace. He watched his captors' footsteps, timing his moment when they were both mid-step. As they both shifted forward, he leaned down and twisted his torso, throwing both of his captors off balance. Continuing his roll, he fell on to the floor and slipped his hands under his feet as he landed on his back. He pushed to his feet, his hands now in front of him, and faced the two creatures as they stood.

It didn't take him long to dispose of them. He kicked the creature on his left as he struck at the one on his right with his hands. As both fell back, he grabbed one his captors' swords, slicing through the air as he spun around. As he finished his circle, he struck out again and pushed the tip of the sword into the creature on his right as it came at him. As it crumpled to the ground with a squeal, he turned and quickly parried a thrust from his remaining captor. After a few exchanges, he managed to put a deep cut into the creature's sword arm and the creature immediately lost his grip on the weapon. Mal struck again, this time putting his blade through the creature's chest. With another squeal, the creature fell to the ground and went still.

Mal didn't waste any time. There would most certainly be another set of guards nearby and it wouldn't take them long to investigate the noises. With his hands still tied, he ran down the hallway and put his shoulder into the stone. It moved slowly, a little too slowly for his liking but, eventually, he got it open just far enough to slip through. Not bothering to shut it behind him, he began to run through the dark, earthen tunnel as fast as his feet could carry him.


	9. Chapter 9

Thor smiled as Jane pushed his hand away again. "No more!" she said with a laugh. "I'm stuffed already."

"Just one more bite," he said. "Then I will be satisfied."

"You said that five bites ago," she said. When he didn't move, she rolled her eyes and smiled. "Fine, one more bite."

Thor slid the fork into her mouth and watched as her lips closed over the tender piece of meat. It was amazing how simple things, like feeding her dinner, made him feel. It grounded him, in a way, made him feel more like himself. And that, he realized as she chewed slowly, was something he had been lacking lately.

He speared another piece of meat. "Now, just one more -"

"Thor, no," she said, scooting away from him. "Absolutely not. You'll make me sick."

He smiled at her and relented, pushing the fork into his own mouth, savoring the taste. The palace chefs had always been excellent but the evening meal was better than anything he'd had in months. Perhaps it was the company.

He quickly finished what was on the plate and pushed it across the table where a servant immediately came forward and whisked it away, quietly leaving the room so that only Thor and Jane remained. Turning back to Jane, Thor smiled and leaned toward her. "You've toured the palace, explored the library, reviewed our night sky through the telescope. What would you like to do tonight? Walk the grounds, perhaps?"

Jane smiled back at him. "Walk? With all of the food you stuffed in my stomach, I don't think walking would be the best idea."

"Well, what then?" Thor asked.

Jane paused for a moment as she leaned back in her chair. "Tell me something," she finally said.

Thor raised his eyebrow at her. "What would you like to know?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I feel like I've spent the last few days talking your ear off. Tell me something about you, about your childhood."

"My childhood?" Thor repeated. "I was a child once."

Jane waited for a moment. "And?" she asked with a giggle.

Thor laughed back. "And I don't know. I grew up. Eventually."

"Eventually?" Jane said.

Thor nodded. "Eventually." He went quiet for a moment, his face growing pensive as he looked away. "My brother was not completely incorrect in his assessment," he said finally. "Misguided in resolution, perhaps, but not wrong. I was not ready to be a king. Not then."

"And now?" Jane asked.

Thor sighed. "And now I am the king, whether I am ready for it or not."

"Sometimes we thrive better in situations where we have no choice versus those that we choose," she said.

He smiled at her. "You sound like my mother."

"I knew I liked her," Jane answered with a laugh.

"It is just my luck," Thor answered. "First my mother, now you. I shall never escape."

"Never, huh?" Jane repeated, her voice growing quiet. "Sounds like a long time."

He nodded. "I guess it does."

Jane bit her lip and went silent for a moment. "Is that what we're heading toward? A long time?"

Thor glanced over at her. "I suppose have not given it much thought. Have you?"

Jane shrugged. "I don't know. Not really. Kind of. Is it even possible, someone like me with someone like you?"

"It is," Thor answered. "It is not common but you would not be the first Midgardian to spend their final days in Asgard. But, Jane, living in Asgard is different than living in Midgard. It is not a decision one takes lightly."

Jane looked at him. "But I could always visit Midgard."

Thor nodded. "You could. But, as an Asgardian queen, your visits would be limited."

Jane's eyebrows rose. "Queen?"

"Yes, queen," he answered. "I am the king. What else would you be?"

"I don't know. Princess, wife. Consort." She smiled cheekily at him.

Thor laughed. "Consort, huh? I think you could already be considered my consort."

"Sounds clandestine," she answered with a giggle.

"It is," he answered as he slowly leaned toward her. When they were a breath apart, however, the doors to the dining room burst open and several guards filed in. Jane jumped as Thor pushed away from her and turned to face the intruders. "What is the meaning of this?" he said, his loud voice echoing like a boom across the room.

"Apologies, your majesty," one of the men said. "But there is urgent news."

"What?" Thor asked, pushing to his feet. "My brother? Sigyn?"

"No, sir," the man answered. "It is Black Dragons. They have returned."

"Returned?" Thor repeated. "I thought they went home."

"They did," the guard replied. "Or, more accurately, they got part way there and then turned back."

The guard took a breath to continue but, before he could, a second unit of soldiers came pouring into the room. "Your majesty!" one of them called out. "Lady Sif and the Warriors Two have returned!"

Thor paused for a moment to take a breath before addressing both units. "Show everyone to my council chambers. See that they have food and drink. I will meet with them shortly."

"Yes, sir!" The shouts reverberated as both units quickly dispatched themselves from the room.

With a sigh, Thor turned and faced Jane. "I am sorry. But I must attend to the Vanir and the Warriors."

"And Lady Sif," Jane said as she pushed to her feet.

Thor nodded. "Yes, her, as well. Forgive me?"

Jane shrugged nonchalantly. "Of course. You're the king. Your people need you."

Thor leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I will make this up to you."

She smiled at him. "Sure. Go on. Do what you need to do."

Thor smiled at her one last time before he turned and strode from the room. As Jane watched him go, she felt the same feeling that she'd felt when he'd come to Midgard to bring them to Asgard, a feeling that he was different somehow despite being the same. Unlike before, however, she knew what it was. She was watching a king walk away from her, the king of Asgard. And, whether he realized it or not, he was no longer really hers.

***

"We are ready to attack Asgard. We should leave in the morning."

Hela smiled up at Mephisto as he swept into the room, his red robes trailing behind him. "Then morning it shall be."

Sigyn set down her fork and looked at the red demon as he took his seat at the dinner table. "How long will it take to reach Asgard?"

"Four or five days," he answered. "Six at the most."

"Six?" she repeated. "Isn't that too long?"

"War takes time, my precious princess," Mephisto answered. "There are men to move, feed, sleep. Horses to water. Strategies to prepare. All this takes time."

"But Asgard will be prepared for our onslaught in six days," Sigyn answered. "Is there no group we can send ahead of the army to weaken their defenses?"

"Not unless we want to send them to certain death," he responded, taking a sip of wine. He smiled across the table at her. "Patience, my dear. Our victory will come."

Sigyn stared at him for another moment but said nothing.

Later that night, Loki watched as Sigyn paced around the sitting room they shared. "You are exhausting to watch," he said after a bit. "Sit down, would you?"

She glanced at him before continuing her pace. "I can't. The future is so close and yet..."

Loki waited for a moment. "And yet?" he repeated.

"It does not sit well with me that Mal escaped."

"There is nothing you can do about your cousin."

She stopped and spun to face him. "You don't understand. If it were anyone else, I would not be nearly as concerned. But this is Mal. He is a trained warrior with almost twenty years of experience behind him. He's resourceful and smart. He won't be easy to defeat."

"I don't understand?" Loki repeated, raising his eyebrow at her. "My brother is the king of Asgard. He commands an army of several thousand. I think I understand better than most."

She sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. It's just so frustrating to sit here and wait."

"Well, why are we, then?"

Sigyn came to a stop and looked at Loki. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean," Loki said, rising to his feet, "is why are we sitting here and waiting for Hela to give the signal? There are other ways into Asgard."

Sigyn looked up at him as he stopped in front of her. "But what can we do without an army?"

Loki ran his thumb across her jaw before settling his hands on her shoulders. "What is the one thing in all of the worlds that my brother cherishes most, the one thing that he wouldn't give up, even for you?"

Sigyn thought for a moment, her eyes lighting up as it dawned on her. "His mortal woman."

Loki smiled down at Sigyn. "Precisely. And just what would he be willing to give up to save her?"

"Everything." Sigyn stared up at Loki for a moment as a smile toyed at the edge of her mouth. "There is a passageway through my chambers that leads to the stables. We can get the jotuns and horses and be gone before dawn."

Loki's smile grew. "Well, then, lead on, my dear."

***

He could hear the noise from his chambers long before he reached them. The animated cries of the Warriors and the Vanir carried down the palace hallways and Thor was able to catch snippets of the conversations as he walked, a gymir attack on the road to Vanaheim, an abandoned campsite a half a day from the Deadlands. He paused outside the closed doors, listening for a moment before he pushed into the room, his private guards trailing behind him. As he entered, the chamber fell silent and everyone around the long table stood. He nodded at each of them as he took his place at the head of the table. "Friends, allies. Thank you for meeting me here."

They all nodded in return and slowly sat down as he did. Thor looked around the table, his eyes coming to rest on Sif for a brief moment. She refused to look away, a trait that he admired as a friend, disliked as a king. When she consented to nod, he looked at the other side of the table to Nathaniel and Eldrick. "Where is Mal?"

Eldrick glanced at Nathaniel before speaking. "Missing. We believe that he went into Vanaheim alone to face his family's murderers."

Thor raised his eyebrow at the old soldier. "Why would he do such a thing?"

"To spare lives," Nathaniel cut in before Eldrick could speak again. "Hela is in Vanaheim. It was she who murdered the royal family."

"What?" Thor asked. "Why? The Vanir have no feud with her people. Why would she do such a thing?"

Nathaniel opened his mouth to respond but Eldrick cut in before him. "We believe it may have been instigated by Sigyn."

The room went completely silent in shock and disbelief. As he tried to comprehend what had just been said, Thor's eyes went between the two soldiers. "Sigyn?"

Eldrick nodded. "Yes, your majesty. Sigyn, who is the princess of Vanir and also..." He paused for a moment. "A frost giant."

Nearly every head, including Nathaniel's, turned to stare at Eldrick. "Frost giant?" Nathaniel repeated. "I did not know she was a frost giant."

"Most people don't," Eldrick answered. He looked at Thor. "Like your brother, Sigyn was adopted by the king after she was abandoned by her birth parents and raised by her new family as a Vanir. But, unlike Loki, Sigyn always knew what she was. Her parents hid her true nature from the people of Vanaheim but not from her."

"So, what happened?" Nathaniel asked. "If she always knew, why did she betray her family now?"

Eldrick looked at the younger man before looking at Thor. Thor nodded, an uneasy feeling settling in his gut. This story was an all too familiar one. "About a year ago," Eldrick said, "Sigyn became almost obsessed with the idea of traveling to Jotunheim. She begged the king to let her go, saying that she just wanted to know who she really was but he turned her down, repeatedly."

"But, she went anyway," Thor said quietly.

"Unfortunately, yes," Eldrick said. "One cold evening last winter, she snuck into Jotunheim and, while there, discovered the one thing the king was afraid she would."

"What?" Nathaneiel asked.

Eldrick took a deep breath. "That, by law, the throne of Vanaheim should be hers. You see, Sigyn is the elder child."

The room burst into chaos. "But she's adopted!" Nathaniel nearly shouted.

"There are no blood laws in Vanaheim," Eldrick answered. "It is the eldest child of the royal family. Parentage does not matter."

"Did Mal know?" one of the Dragons called out.

Eldrick shook his head. "No. The king was selective about who he told."

"Then how did you find out?" Nathaniel asked angrily.

Eldrick narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "I am the oldest member of the Black Dragons and a former king's guard. Do you not think that has earned me some amount of responsibility?"

Nathaniel stared at him for another moment but did not say anything further.

Thor waited a moment for the noise to quiet down. 

"So, it makes sense why she wanted my brother."

Eldrick nodded. "Yes. She has always been fond of your brother but, once she realized that they were more alike than she thought, he became more attractive, if you will, to her."

"And what does she intend to do?" Thor asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Eldrick answered. "At the very least, it appears that she intends to use Hela's army to secure the throne of Vanaheim. Though, in my opinion, it seems unlikely that she would stop there."

Thor nodded. "I agree. The chance of an attack on Asgard seems probable. We will begin preparations tonight." He turned and looked at the other side of the table at Sif, Hogun, and Volstagg. "And your findings?"

"They corroborate what the Black Dragons have deduced," Sif said. "A half a day from the Deadlands we found an abandoned campsite that appears to have been left by Loki and Sigyn. Around the campsite, we found footprints from Fenris wolves."

Another round of sound erupted in the room. "Friends!" Thor thundered. The room quieted immediately and he looked at Eldrick. "It makes sense why Fenris wolves have been seen on Asgard if Hela is in Vanaheim. And, if she used any type of dark magic, it explains how they arrived undetected."

Eldrick nodded. "Indeed it does."

Thor turned back to Sif. "Continue, please."

"The wolves did not appear to attack either Sigyn or Loki, however. There were no signs of a struggle or remains from a fight. Instead, Hogun found two sets of footprints leading back toward Asgard, footprints that we believe to belong to your brother and the princess," Sif finished.

"Back to Asgard?" Thor said. He looked at Eldrick. "But, are they not in Vanaheim?"

"We believe them to be in Vanaheim," Eldrick answered.

"But, you are not certain," Thor said.

Eldrick shook his head. "No, we are not certain."

Thor looked around the room. "Can any of you confirm Loki and Sigyn's whereabouts?"

"I can," a voice called out from behind them.

As Thor turned around, his eyes widened in shock. "Malefort?"


	10. Chapter 10

Malefort nearly dropped from exhaustion as he entered the chamber. A guard quickly put an arm under his shoulders and guided him toward the table while another brought him a chair. Dropping into it wearily, he looked around the room at his Dragons, the Warriors, Lady Sif, and Thor. "I can," he said, happily taking a glass that someone shoved in front of him and drinking deeply from it. When it was empty, he slammed it down on the table. "I can confirm their whereabouts. Loki and Sigyn are in Vanaheim with Hela."

Another eruption occurred, with people rapidly hurling questions at Mal. What happened to him? Where had he been? Why did he leave his men? What was going on in Vanaheim?

He was grateful when Thor quieted the room again and looked on as the king retook his seat. "Mal," Thor started, "if you are too tired -"

"No," Mal interrupted. "It is too important. I will tell you what happened."

And so he did. He told them of Sigyn's treachery, confirmed their theory of Loki and Sigyn's alliance, and provided what information he could about Hela. He told them of how he found his horse lingering in the nearby wood once he escaped the palace and of how she died a mere three miles from Asgard after riding hard and fast to get him there, a miraculous feat considering how hard he'd ridden her to get to Vanaheim. He told them of everything he could think of, answered as many questions as he could, and, when it was over, felt more tired than he had in a year.

Thor could see that the Vanir prince needed rest and quickly adjourned the meeting soon after Mal was done speaking. He sent a few of his servants to ready a room for his new guest and watched as they and the rest of the impromptu council departed. Once the room had cleared out, Thor turned to the dark haired man and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, my friend."

Mal nodded weakly. "For what it is worth, you are welcome. I pray to the gods that favor is on your side and that you emerge victorious. It will not be an easy battle."

"No battle is ever easy," Thor responded.

"True, very true," Mal answered. "Hela has most likely pulled minions from the deepest, darkest crevices of Hel and I have little doubt that they will unleash horror on our world."

Thor nodded. "That they will. But, we will be ready for them."

Mal nodded as well and fell silent for a moment. "She has Mephisto with her," he said quietly after a bit.

Thor looked at Mal in surprise. "Mephisto? But what in the world would she want with him? Last I knew, they were not even on speaking terms."

"It appears that all has been forgiven," Mal answered, waving his hand carelessly. "Years of hatred and backstabbing gone like smoke. If only all feuds could be ended so easily."

Thor smiled. "Then old war dogs like us would not be needed."

Mal sighed as a small smiled spread on his face. "I am not old. Though, gods know, I feel like I am some days. I never imagined when we were children that growing older would be so exhausting."

Thor gave a small laugh in agreement. "I could not agree more. Come," he said, pulling Mal to his feet. "Your room should be ready shortly. I will take you there."

Mal and Thor walked side by side through the palace halls, both quietly contemplating their own thoughts. Finally, Thor said quietly, "I am sorry about Sigyn."

Mal nodded solemnly as he shuffled along. "Me, too. It's so hard to believe and yet..." He paused for a moment. "She was like a sister to me."

"I understand," Thor said. "When Loki turned, I could not understand it. He was my brother, is still my brother, and yet he hates me more each day."

"Perhaps it is not you he hates," Mal said. "We hurt the ones we care for the most."

Thor looked over at Mal. "It is the only thing I can hope for at this point." He came to a stop just beyond an open door and nodded at the servants he'd sent previously as they left the room made their way past the two men. "Here is your room. Please let me know if you need anything."

Mal offered a hand to Thor. "Thank you. If you will have me, I will gladly fight by your side when the time comes."

Thor shook Mal's hand. "I will gladly have you."

The two dropped their hands and, as Thor continued down the hall, Mal went into his room, closing the door quietly behind him, and fell on to the bed fully clothed. It was only a matter of moments until he fell into a fast and mercifully dreamless sleep.

***

Nathaniel paced around his bedchamber, too enraged to sleep and too fidgety to sit still. He couldn't quite but his finger on the source of his anger but he supposed it centered around Sigyn. How could it be that he did not know her true nature? Why had Eldrick kept it a secret? Why had she kept it a secret? With every step he took, the betrayal set in more deeply, the anger became more consuming. It was not fair, this web of lies that had been wove around him. It was simply not fair.

Then, to make matters worse, there was the issue of the blood laws. It infuriated him that he hadn't known about the blood laws. He should have, having spent his entire life in Vanaheim. He'd always assumed that there were blood laws because Simon was the eldest, blooded child to the king. But, now everything was changed with Eldrick's reveal about Sigyn. Nathaniel had no idea where that left him and the feeling unsettled him.

A knock sounded on his door and he paused pacing to answer it. "Eldrick," he said, stepping aside to let the elder soldier in.

"Sire," Eldrick said, closing the door behind him. "You left quickly after the evening meal."

Nathaniel resumed his pacing. "I had much on my mind."

Eldrick remained standing by the closed door. "You were upset about Sigyn."

"Of course I was upset about Sigyn!" Nathaniel retorted. "Would you not also be upset?"

Eldrick nodded slowly. "Perhaps I would. But the best interest of the crown supersedes any personal emotions, as you fully know."

Nathaniel glanced over at the other man. "And we live our lives according to the best interests of the crown."

Eldrick nodded slightly. "Of course. It is our duty as Dragons and as citizens of Vanaheim."

Nathaniel nodded and continued pacing. After a moment, he said, "If there is no recognized heir to the Vanir throne, what occurs then?"

Eldrick watched the other man closely. "You will never sit on the throne, Nathaniel," he said quietly after a moment.

Nathaniel stopped moving and stared at Eldrick. "Why not?"

"You have no claim," Eldrick answered.

"That is where you are wrong," Nathaniel answered. "I have a claim, perhaps a greater claim than some beast from Jotenheim. I am the king's eldest son."

Shock registered on Eldrick’s face. "What did you say?"

"I am the king's eldest son," Nathaniel repeated. "Why do you think I became a ward of the crown as a child?"

"The king never..." Eldrick started.

"You mean the same king who changed his eldest daughter's age to put his simple-minded, blooded son on the throne?" Nathaniel answered. "No, of course not. The king never lied about anything."

Eldrick looked over at Nathaniel but said nothing.

***

It took Sigyn, Loki, and their group of Jotuns three days to reach Asgard. They reached the edge of the Asgard during midday and waited for nightfall before they began to infiltrate the city. Loki led them through a series of unused passageways, taking them under stables, through unguarded warehouses, and down back alleyways that were not important enough to be lit. Finally, after miles of winding through the city, they came to the base of the palace, which appeared smooth initially until he flipped a hidden switch and a crack appeared in the wall's façade. With the help of a few jotuns, he pried it open and led them into the palace.

"I expect that this passageway will be guarded," he said quietly as they stopped just inside the doorway. "My brother is no fool."

The leader of the jotuns nodded. "We will do what we must."

Loki nodded in return. "Good. You should continue straight down this hallway. Eliminate as many as you can. Once you are outnumbered, retreat out of the city."

"What?" Sigyn interrupted in a loud whisper. "Loki, this is madness. We need the jotuns."

"We need a distraction to get to Jane," he answered. "Once we have Jane, we will have the upper hand. You do not need an army to defeat a man if you possess his weakness."

Sigyn stared at him for a moment before nodding her assent. "Okay. Fine. We will go after Jane alone."

Loki turned to the jotun. "Agreed?"

The giant nodded. "Agreed. However, once we leave the city, we will not return under any circumstances."

Loki nodded. "Understood. Good luck."

The jotun bowed his head. "And to you."

They parted at the first junction of hallways, the jotuns continuing forward while he and Sigyn went left. She followed him quietly, the only sound she made coming from the soft slap of her shoes on the golden floor as they made haste through the palace. He led her through a series of hidden doors and darkened hallways, not pausing until they were at the end of the hallway that led to Jane's room.

"My brother is smart," Loki said quietly to Sigyn as they peered down the hallway. "He has put his beloved in one of the few rooms that has no hidden entrances."

"With two guards stationed at her door," Sigyn said. "He expects an attack on her."

Loki nodded. "Yes, he does." With that, Loki created two replicas of himself but, before he could send them down the hall toward the guards, he looked over and saw that Sigyn had down the same with herself.

At his bewildered look, Sigyn raised her eyebrow at him and smiled. "You're not the only one with tricks up their sleeve."

Loki stared at her for another moment, a smile creeping in at the corners of his mouth. She was a worthy ally indeed.

They dispatched their copies down the hall at full speed and, before long, the two guards were defeated, as well as a third that had come out of the room. When they were all lying on the floor, the real Loki and Sigyn moved down the hallway, their copies disappearing back into air as they neared the door. As they turned into the room, they saw their prize sitting on the edge of a bed, staring at the door. They also saw the large Warrior that guarded her standing between them and their goal.

Loki straightened at the sight of the Warrior. "I should have known."

"You should have," Sif answered, her unsheathed sword glinting in the room’s light. "Loki. Sigyn."

Sigyn nodded in return. "Sif."

"Shall we?"

"We shall."

***

"Hela will reach the edge of the city in two, perhaps two and a half days. She has over ten thousand creatures with her, including boden, gymir, and Fenris wolves. We expect that she will begin by attacking the outer city, including the surrounding farmlands, in an attempt to weaken our ability to get supplies."

Thor and Mal listened intently as the scout gave his report. "We should bring those people in from the fields as soon as possible," Mal said. "Hela may send raiding parties to kill them before she attacks full force."

"Agreed," Thor said. He turned to a nearby solider. 'Organize groups of men to bring as many of those into the city walls as we can and gather whatever supplies you can carry."

The soldier nodded briskly before turning to leave the room. "Yes, sire."

"The Dragons would be happy to help this endeavor," Mal said.

Thor looked at his friend. "I appreciate your generous offer but I would much rather save their strength for the battle."

Mal nodded as though in agreement but leaned over to Thor's ear. "You do realize that, if there are raiding parties, your men may not make it back alive."

Thor nodded but said nothing. As difficult a decision as it was to make, the risk of a hundred lives was not worth leaving his city of thousands with a lowered defense. And the Dragons were among the best fighters he had at his disposal.

Thor turned back to the scout. "Anything else?"

"As you know, Mephisto has joined Hela. He has brought his demons with him so the smithies are making silver arrows and swords to destroy them."

Thor nodded. "Good, anything else?"

The scout hesitated. "Well, there is one more thing."

Thor and Mal stared expectantly at the scout. "Pray tell," Mal said after a moment.

The scout took a deep breath. "Loki and Sigyn were not spotted with the army." 

Both Thor and Mal's eyes went wide. "Not spotted?" Thor repeated. "What do you mean not spotted?"

"It does not mean that they were not there," the scout replied. "But, none of my men saw them." 

Thor turned to Mal and it dawned on both of them at the same time. “Jane,” Thor said. “Bring help!” Thor called back to the scout over his shoulder as he and Mal took off running toward her room.

They reached it in record time and, when they did, they could hear sounds of fighting coming from inside. When Thor tried the handle, however, it was locked solidly. "Jane!" he called out, beating on the door. "Sif!"

He heard someone jiggling the lock from the inside. "I can't get it open!" Jane called through the wood. "It's like it's welded shut or something."

"Stand back!" Thor shouted. He and Mal put their shoulders down and began ramming the door as hard as they could, the wooden planks rattling but not giving way. "I am coming, Jane!" he called out.

Inside the room, Sif was barely fending off Loki and Sigyn. They both played dirty and she'd gotten two serious wounds already, one on her abdomen and one on her shoulder. She was lucky that it wasn't her sword arm that hit but she was already starting to feel lightheaded from the loss of blood. When she heard Thor banging on the door, she nearly sighed with relief. Help was a mere ten feet away.

"Sif!" Jane called desperately as she tried the handle. "It's stuck!"

"Stand back!" Sif called back. "They will try to break it open."

"They will never break it open," Loki sneered as he jabbed at Sif's bare flesh with the icy rod he'd created with his blue hands. "It's held shut by a force greater than all of you possess."

Sif parried the jab. “Your magic is not that strong, Loki.” 

"No, but ours is," Sigyn responded as she went after Sif with her pair of daggers. She let her fingertips go blue and ice formed over the tips of her blades.

"You’re a frost giant?" Sif asked incredulously as her sword clanged with the frozen daggers.

Sigyn smiled maliciously at the Warrior. "Surprise," she said as she went after Sif again.

Sif met each of their thrusts with one of her own, the pounds on the door keeping her hope alive. If she could only make it until Thor and Mal got through, she and Jane would be safe. She felt fatigue wearing in her arms as she raised her sword and brought it down but gritted her teeth. She could make it. She had to make it.

She was trying to think of something that would break the pair's focus, particularly the focus that they had on maintaining their magic, when it happened. She had just knocked Loki's rod away and was thrusting toward his neck when it hit her. She had a clear shot. There was no way that he could recover that quickly and Sigyn was too far away to save him. The moment seemed to slow down as she drove toward his open flesh. She heard Sigyn shout, followed by the splintering of wood as Thor and Mal began to crack through the door. She knew that she had won now that their hold on the door had been lost and she shouted with victory as she pushed toward Loki, giving his death her full attention.

It was an amateur mistake.

The pain hit her like a thousand knives slicing her body at once. She immediately swiveled away from Loki, her sword falling uselessly to the ground as she fell to her knees in gut wrenching agony. She looked down at her body and saw that her wounds, which were once only seeping blood, were now gushing like rivers, the red covering her clothes and pooling on to the floor at an alarming rate. She looked up and saw Sigyn, her arms extended toward Sif, her skin a dark icy blue and her eyes redder than fire.

"You shall not harm him!" Sigyn called out, her voice terrifyingly tremendous. "And you shall die for your sin!" She twisted her arms and Sif began to convulse uncontrollably, the pain intensifying tenfold. She screamed wordlessly as she fell to the floor, the cold stone catching her unforgivingly. In her mind, she prayed for it to be over soon. If the gods would only be so kind...

She was a breath away from death when the pain suddenly stopped. Sif was conscious enough to see Thor and Mal burst through the door as Loki grabbed Sigyn and pulled her out the window. No doubt they would survive. Their magic together was clearly strong.

Thor saw Loki and Sigyn disappear into the air through the window as he burst through the door. Mal ran after them but shook his head. "They've disappeared," he called out. "Some sort of magic trick."

Thor heard him but didn't respond. Instead, he quickly went to Jane who was already looking at Sif. "Jane."

She covered her mouth and shook her head. "Sif," she croaked out as the tears welling in her eyes slipped down her cheeks.

He moved to the Warrior, gently lifting her head off of the stone floor. "Sif, can you hear me?"

Sif swallowed and cracked open her eyes. "I can."

"Hold on, help is coming," he said. He tried to cover one of her wounds with one of his hands but the wound wasn't really bleeding anymore and not because it had begun to heal. She simply didn't have any more to give.

Sif shook her head a little. "There is nothing anyone can do."

"There is always something someone can do," Thor responded.

"Not this time," Sif answered as she coughed up a bit of blood. "I am no fool, Thor."

"Do not speak this way," Thor said as he cradled her head in his arms. "The surgeon will be here soon."

"It will not be soon enough. Is she safe?" Sif asked.

"Is who safe?"

"Jane. Is she safe?" Her eyes kept fluttering as though she could barely keep them open.

Thor nodded. "Yes, she's safe."

"Then my death is an honorable one," she said, her eyes falling shut.

"Sif!" Thor said, roughly shaking her body. "Sif!"

Sif's eyes fluttered again. "Tell your children of this day," she murmured.

Thor nodded. "I will." But, as he looked more closely, he could see that her eyes were not focused on him but over his shoulder.

Jane stood behind him and reached down to touch Sif's hand. "I will."

Sif nodded slightly and let her eyes shut again.

"Sif!" Thor shook her again and called her name but her eyes did not open again. With a final shallow breath, her body went still as she passed quietly into Valhalla.


	11. Chapter 11

There was no time to mourn Sif's death. The demon army arrived in two days as predicted, preceded by smoke and the cries of those hadn't made it into the city. As the sun set that day, the first of the hel creatures appeared in the eastern fields outside of Asgard. "They will attack at dark," Thor said to Malefort, who stood next to him.

Mal nodded as the two of them watched the army gather from their high perch in the palace. "I agree, they will. Their sight is much better at night."

"Shore up the city's borders," Thor called out to a nearby captain. "And let no more through the gate. Those poor souls will have to fend for themselves. We cannot risk being breached."

The captain nodded and rushed off to complete his orders.

Thor looked back to Mal. "You should rest before the battle," he said.

Mal shook his head. "No, I am here until the end."

Thor nodded. "So be it." He looked to his right. "Jane?"

Jane, who stood between Darcy and Eric, nodded. "We're good."

"I'd prefer it if the three of you went someplace safer," he said quietly.

Jane shook her head. "There is nowhere safer. Not anymore."

"Besides," Darcy cut in as she gripped a shield in her hands, "we'd miss all the action."

"Darcy," Eric muttered.

"What?" she asked. "We would."

Thor glanced back at Jane once last time who shook her head slightly at him. In a way, she was right. There was no place safer than at his side. But, that didn't change the fact that he wished her away from the fighting.

The outer wall of the city was hit just after the last bits of sun fell from the sky. Thor listened to the sounds of the distant battle from his high perch, the clangs and clashes muffled by the distance. "If they breach the outer wall," he said to Mal, "we will ride out to meet them. I'd prefer to stop them before they reach the palace."

Mal nodded. "The Dragons are ready to go at your command."

"Good," Thor said.

The fighting lasted until the first wisps of dawn clawed their way through the sky. Thor watched as the fires burning in the fields slowly died with the coming light, a sure signal that this wave was finished. He watched as the hel creatures retreated, battered but not yet defeated. He watched as his own dead were brought back into the city and the injured were rushed to the palace for aid. He watched as the sun rose and, as it reached over the horizon, he turned to Mal. "We attack at noon," he said quietly. "Rest your men while you can. Tell no one else."

Mal nodded without a word and hurried away. He understood what Thor was doing. His best chance to strike was when the hel creatures were at their weakest, the dead of noon, but it would only work as long as they didn't know the attack was coming.

Thor turned to Jane and pulled her to his side. "I must rest now. You should do the same."

Jane cocked an eyebrow at him. "I can't sleep during this."

"You must," he answered. "Hogan and Volstaff will stay with you and your friends while you rest. You will be safe."

Jane looked up at him. "I'd prefer to stay with you."

Thor smiled a bit. "I know. But I must rest. I fear the next night will be longer than this one." There was no need to tell her that he had little intention of letting the battle last that long.

Jane nodded. "Okay."

"I will see you for dinner," he answered. He hoped it would be true.

He rested fitfully for a few hours before he snuck down to the stables where Malefort, the Dragons, and a hundred of his best soldiers waited. He said nothing to his men and they needed no words. It was a dangerous but necessary part of war.

They left out of the eastern gate by horseback, riding as quickly as they could to the enemy encampment. Several men held torches for burning shelters while others held cauldrons of liquid silver for the archers to dip their arrows into. As they neared the camp, they all surveyed the landscape. Hundreds of tents, which enclosed hundreds of their enemy. They would take out as many as they could before retreating.

The soldiers with the torches started by lighting the huts, while the Dragons killed the creatures as they fled from the fire. Thor swung Mjolnir swift and true as his horse pounded through the camp. He didn't know how many he killed. It didn't really matter. The creatures kept coming, pouring out of the shelters as if the shelters were direct portals to hel. Perhaps they were. Thor kept swinging his hammer.

They got a fourth of the way through the camp before the tides started to turn. The creatures who had either been killed or pushed out of their shelters awoke the other creatures and it wasn't long before Thor could see that his group of men were outnumbered. "Retreat!" he yelled into the fray, turning his horse to head for the city walls. He rode as quickly as he could, taking out whatever creature Mjolnir could reach as he crossed back through the camp. When he arrived at the city, the gate swung open for him and he thundered through it, not stopping until he reached the stables. He quickly dropped from his saddle and looked around for someone to hand his reins to. When he didn't see anyone, he called out. "Hello?"

He heard the rest of the men come to a stop behind him. "Where is everyone?" someone called out.

"I do not know," Thor answered. A horse came to a stop next to him and he looked up to see Malefort staring down at him with concern. "What is it, old friend?" Thor asked.

Mal dropped from his saddle. "I have seen this before, in Vanaheim."

"When?" Thor asked tightly, already half knowing the answer.

Mal looked at him sadly. "Just a few days ago."

Thor dropped the reins to his horse and took off through the grounds surrounding the palace, heading for the closest entrance into the palace. He barely heard his men and the Dragons calling as they chased after him as there was only one thought on his mind.

Jane. 

***

The palace was as silent as a tomb as Thor crept into the throne room. They'd encountered no one as they wove their ways through the hallways. The torches were light, the rooms were warm; but there were no people.

"It's spooky," one of the men behind him said.

"Hush," Malefort said in a whispered tone. "You don't want to attract attention."

"Oh, but you already have."

The voice echoed through the room and, as the torches flared to an almost impossible brightness, a mass of creatures flooded the room. Thor immediately found himself surrounded by hellish creatures of all manner, gymir and helhounds and boden. He swung his hammer through the air, pummeling his enemies, but he knew his heart that he was outmatched. It didn't matter. He would go down fighting. He wouldn't give in.

Just as quickly as the fighting began, however, it stopped as a harsh tone sounded. The creatures quickly retreated to the fringes of the room and, as he looked up, Thor saw Hela sitting on the Asgardian throne.

"It fits me well, don't you think?" she purred as she looked down at him from her perch.

"What game do you play at? Let us end this," Thor answered, his hammer gripped tightly in his hand.

"So quick to die," she answered.

"Who says I will die?" he responded.

"My minions," she answered. "Face it, king, you're outnumbered, a hundred to one. Not to mention the reserves I have outside of your walls. They were a nice diversion to give me time to sneak in."

"What do you want from me?" Thor asked.

Hela looked down at him and smiled. "There is an item in your vault that is most interesting to me. I would exchange it for your life."

"And my kingdom," Thor answered.

"Greedy, aren't we?" Hela murmured.

"My kingdom," Thor repeated.

Hela looked down at him. "Very well, your kingdom."

Thor stared at her for a moment. It was easy, too easy. "What is the item you wish to possess?"

She smiled at him. "The Infinity Gauntlet."

Thor narrowed his eyes at her. "So you can rule the universe? No."

Hela raised her eyebrow at him. "You do realize that I could kill you and take it anyway."

"Then why haven't you?" Thor asked.

Hela stared at him silently as her lip began to snarl. "You know why."

Thor looked at her for a moment. "It's not there," he said softly.

"It's not there!" Hela screamed as she pushed up from the throne, his throne. "Where is it? What have you done with it?" She stormed down the stairs and over to where he stood. Without warning, she reached out and raked her sharp nails across his face. "Give it to me! Now!"

His cheek stung from the scratches. He took a step back to get out of her reach but, before he could say anything, a voice boomed out over the room. "He doesn't have it." 

Thor turned and was only partially surprised when he recognized the speaker. "Loki."

Loki smiled and stepped forward. The gauntlet was fastened on his right hand and its gems shined brighter than all of the torches in the room. "Brother," he said as he came to a stop a few feet from Thor. "How pleasant to see you again."

"What are you doing?" Thor asked.

"Taking what is mine," another voice called out. Thor shifted his eyes and saw Sigyn come to a stop just behind his brother, her eyes glued to Hela. "We had a deal," she growled.

Hela sneered at her. "You forfeited that deal when you and your consort left Vanaheim without my permission."

"I don't need to your permission," Sigyn retorted. "I do what I want."

"But you did need my army," Hela answered. "And, technically, I held up my end of the bargain. Vanaheim and Asgard in exchange for the gauntlet." Her eyes shifted to Loki. "Now give it to me."

Loki clenched his right fist. "My brother isn't dead."

Hela raised her eyebrows at him. "I never agreed to kill the king, only to overtake his throne. That is done. He is outnumbered and powerless. Now give me the gauntlet."

Loki glanced at Thor. "Then you don't know my brother very well," he said softly. "He'll never be powerless unless he's dead." And with that, Loki unclenched his fist and held his hand up.

Thor immediately felt something squeeze within him. His lungs began to tighten as the air rushed out of them. He gasped for breath but, the more he tried to take, the less air he got.

"Loki, stop!" someone called out. "You'll kill him!"

"That's the point," Loki muttered, his eyes focused on Thor.

Thor looked at his brother as his vision started to dim. "Loki..."

Loki grinned as the gems in the gauntlet began to shine brighter. "Loki,” he repeated in a mocking tone. "For once, brother, I will be victorious. I, who should have been, will be king of Asgard. I, second son of Odin and -"

From out of nowhere, someone came hurtling through the crowd and launched themselves at Loki, cutting him off as the both of them went crashing to the floor. The grip on Thor immediately loosened and, as his vision returned, he saw Nathaniel and Loki rolling on the floor, Nathaniel's hand gripped around the gauntlet. "Give it to me!" he screamed.

"Nathaniel!" Sigyn yelled, trying to break into the fight. "Stop!"

"No!" Nathaniel yelled. "It will be mine!"

Hela stood up from her throne. "Attack!" she yelled into the crowd. And with that, the room erupted.


	12. Chapter 12

Thor did his best to keep track of Loki and Sigyn but they were soon lost in the foray. He found himself fighting off two gymir before long, his hammer swinging mighty and true. The creatures swung their swords but they were no match for Mjolnir and it wasn't long before he was fighting his way through the throng of people toward the last place he had seen his brother. When he got there, he found Mal felling a boden before turning to help one of his Dragons fight a giant. He joined his hammer to the fight and, once the giant hit the floor, Mal turned to him. "I saw them running toward your chambers," Mal said.

"Thank you, friend," Thor answered, though Mal was already turning away to fight a helhound.

Thor took off at a run toward his rooms, pausing only when he needed to clear a path for himself. Once he left the throne room, the fighting lessened considerably and he was able to push down the halls as fast as he his feet could carry him. When he reached the door to his chamber, he paused for a moment. A cacophony of angry voices carried through the metal and, though he stood at the door for a moment, he couldn't make out what was being said. Without wasting any more time, he pushed the door open.

The first thing his eyes were drawn to were Jane. She, Darcy, and Eric were being held in the corner by Mephisto. As Thor walked into the room, he felt Mephisto's red eyes fall on him. "Ah," the demon breathed with delight, "the prodigal son appears at last."

Thor spared him a glance before staring at Jane. She and her friends appeared to be scared but unhurt. A part of his heart gave thanks for that. He looked around for Volstagg and Hogan but they were nowhere to be seen so he looked back at Mephisto. "Let them go," he growled, "and I will spare your life."

"Now why would I do that?" Mephisto asked cruelly. And, with a wicked smile, he lunged forward and drove his spear through Darcy's leg.

Darcy screamed as Thor lunged forward. Before he could reach the demon, however, another voice called out. "Mephisto!"

Thor turned and saw Hela on the other side of the room. She stood with Loki, who still wore the gauntlet, and Nathaniel, who held a knife to Sigyn's throat. "I need them alive," Hela sneered. "They are of no use dead."

"Just having some fun, madam," Mephisto answered, yanking his spear out of Darcy's leg. She groaned as Jane and Eric grabbed her arms, helping her to the floor before tending to her wound. Thor kept himself still, wanting to help them but knowing that the only way to keep them alive was to pay attention.

Hela's nostrils flared before she turned back to Loki. "Now, your situation has become even more desperate. Give me the gauntlet and I will spare your life."

"Let her go," Loki answered, his eyes never leaving Hela's.

"No!" Nathaniel shouted, the knife pressing into Sigyn's throat. "She is mine!"

"I am not property," Sigyn growled. Nathaniel's only response was to dig the knife deeper into her throat, causing a drop of blood to trickle down her pale skin.

"Shut up!" Nathaniel screamed. He pressed the knife deeper and Sigyn visibly winced.

"Nathaniel!" Hela reprimanded. "Enough." She turned to Loki, who took a step toward Nathaniel though his eyes were firmly fastened on Hela. "Give it to me."

"Let her go," Loki repeated.

"I do not trust you to keep you word," Hela answered. "Give me the gauntlet first."

"And I do not trust you to keep yours," Loki responded.

Hela glared at him for a moment. "It seems we are at an impasse." She turned to Thor, her eyes gleaming wickedly. "A show of good faith perhaps." And, with that, she thrust her hand at Thor and sent a fireball straight at his head.

Thor ducked the fireball easily and rushed at Mephisto. Behind him, he could hear the clash of metal and looked back briefly to see Sigyn pull free from Nathaniel while Loki and Hela began to throw magical blows at each other. Thor turned back to his own quarry and saw that Mephisto was standing in a fighter's stance, his back toward Jane, Darcy, and Eric, his feet planted firmly on the ground. He was ready for his opponent. What he wasn't ready for were his hostages.

When Thor was about ten feet away from Mephisto, Jane kicked the back of the demon's knees hard enough to make him buckle. As he stumbled, Thor closed in and brought down Mjolnir on the red man's shoulders. Mephisto screamed and fell to the ground. Without thinking about it, Thor brought down Mjolnir again, this time on to the man's head. The demon immediately went silent and twitched for a moment before he went still.

Thor knelt by Jane, who was back at Darcy's side. "How is she?" he asked, gesturing at Darcy.

"I can hear, doofus," Darcy muttered. "I'm wounded, not unconscious."

Thor bit back a smile as Jane looked at him. "We've got the bleeding almost stopped," Jane said. "But, we need to get her to the infirmary. It needs to be cleaned and stitched by a doctor."

Thor nodded and glanced at the battle still waging across the room. "Go quietly and quickly out of the side door and take the third left. It will take you directly to the medical rooms."

Jane nodded and, with Eric's help, got Darcy to her feet. Thor kept an eye on the battle across the room as he shielded his guests while they crossed the room. When they were only a few feet from the door, saw Hela glance their way. "Run!" he yelled at the group.

"No!" she screeched. She averted her attention from Loki long enough to use her powers to close the door and it slammed shut just as Jane and Eric reached it. "You shall not leave!"

She turned her attention back to Loki but, unfortunately for her, during the brief distraction, Sigyn was able to push Nathaniel across the room, rendering him momentarily incapacitated, which gave her enough time to draw a small, golden dagger she had concealed in the bodice of her dress. With a yell, Sigyn raced to Hela and plunged it into her side. In that moment, the fighting stopped as Hela's eyes went wide. The hel creature gasped a bit as she looked around the room. Finally, her eyes rested on Sigyn. "You..."

Sigyn's lip curled. "Me," she responded.

The color drained from Hela's face as she dropped to her knees. The wound on her side flowed freely, turning her dress an even deeper shade of crimson. She kneeled precariously for a second before gravity overtook her and she fell backward, her head landing with a sickening thud as it hit the floor. Just then, the main door burst open and the Dragons rushed into the room, Mal at the forefront of his troops. He quickly surveyed the scene. "Sigyn!" he yelled.

Sigyn spun from where she stood over Hela, her eyes full of hatred. The wound on her neck had stopped bleeding, leaving a dark stain on the bodice of her white dress. "Cousin."

"Stop!" he called out, coming to a stop across the room from her. "End this. Enough blood has been shed for one day!"

She cocked her eyebrow at him. "Do you think so? How much blood would you shed to right what had been wronged?"

"Murder is not a means to an end," he responded. 

"Really?" she asked incredulously. "Strange that you should say that. I would think you above all people would believe in talion."

"An eye for an eye," he murmured. "You would call upon ancient, barbaric laws to support your bloodlust?"

"And you won't?" she answered. "I'm surprised at you, cousin. I would think that you would support talion. It would justify your revenge against Morrigan's murderer. He's in this room, after all."

Mal's sharply sucked in his breath at the mention of his wife's name and his eyes immediately drifted to Loki.

"Not him," Sigyn said, her voice dropping to nearly a whisper, her face breaking out in a wide, sinister smile. "The other brother."

Mal looked over at Thor, who's face mirrored the disbelief on Mal's. "I don't understand," he said, his eyes going between Sigyn and the king.

"I did not murder Malefort's wife," Thor added, glancing back at the Vanir princess.

"Oh, but you did," Sigyn said. "Or, should I say, the king of Asgard did. Do you know what kind of magic it takes to transport worlds?"

Thor felt a heavy weight settle into his heart. Behind him, Jane lightly gripped his arm. "Thor? What's going on? What's she talking about?"

Thor took a deep breath. "Black magic," he said quietly.

"Black magic!" Sigyn nearly shouted. She took a step away from Hela, who lay on the floor behind her, alive but barely. "And not just any kind of black magic. A magic so powerful that only a few conjurers can manage it. A conjurer like your wife, Malefort," she said, with a look at her cousin.

"Thor?" Mal said quietly. "What is she talking about?"

Thor paused a moment. "I did not know it was your wife," he said finally. "Nor did I know she carried a child."

"No, you didn't," Sigyn said. "But, your father did."

"What?" Thor said incredulously.

"Oh, yes. Odin, great king of Asgard, bastard of the golden throne, knew the lady, Morrigan, carried a child in her womb," Sigyn continued. "He knew and he didn't care. His orphan was running amok on Midgard, showing up his eldest and true heir, making him look bad to the mortals. He was willing to sacrifice anything to get Loki back to Asgard, even the unborn and the innocent." Her eyes rested on Thor. "And you, king, were so willing to do anything your father asked of you that you never questioned him, even though you know what it would take to get to Midgard, the kind of magic necessary to make the journey."

"Black magic doesn't necessarily kill the caster," Thor retorted. "Even powerful magic."

"True, if the caster were normal, healthy, and not pregnant," Sigyn answered. "But, unfortunately for you, she was. The spell left her weak and sick. She could not support her life as well as her child's. And, in the end, she gave both for you, Thor Odinson."

The room fell silent for a moment. "Mal," Thor said after a bit.

Mal held up his hand, his eyes never leaving his cousin. "Even if what you say is true, it does not justify the murder of innocent people, your family."

"My family were not innocents!" she yelled. "They all knew, even Simon. They knew what I was, how old I was. And, yet, they all did nothing to make things right! They denied me what was mine, what I deserved."

Mal stared at her for a moment as if seeing her truly for the first time. "Sometimes we are not worthy of the things we deserve. Perhaps they denied you because they knew you were not fit to be queen."

Sigyn's eyes went wide with shock. "How dare you!" She lifted her arm and pointed her finger at him. "I will have your heart for that!"

In the next few seconds, several things happened at once. As Sigyn lifted her hand, Nathaniel charged at her from behind and knocked her over. With barely a pause, he then turned and knelt by Hela's body, reaching into one of her pockets to withdraw a vial. Looking up, he locked eyes for a nanosecond with Malefort before smashing the vial on the ground. A red mist sprung up and, within an instant, he and Hela disappeared from the room.

At the same time, Eric rushed forward from behind Thor and ran toward Loki, who had rushed forward to help Sigyn. He turned to see Eric coming at him but it was too late for him to do anything. With a viscous cry, Eric tackled Loki to the floor, wrenching the gauntlet off of his hand. As Eric began to pummel Loki with his fists, he cried out, "I do not have a weak heart!"

Thor ran to help Mal with Sigyn while one of the Dragons secured the fallen gauntlet. The remaining Dragons went to aid Eric and it wasn't long before they had Loki pinned to the floor. It took Thor and Mal a moment or two longer with Sigyn but she was no match for the two soldiers and was also soon pinned to the ground. As tears fell from her eyes on to the cold floor, she wrenched her head around to glare at Mal. "I hate you," she said brokenly.

Mal stared down at her but said nothing.

Thor went across the room to wear a few of the Dragons were hauling Loki to his feet. As Thor approached, Loki lifted his head haughtily and stared at his brother, his expression carefully bored. "What is it to be this time, brother? Starvation, imprisonment, death?"

Thor looked into his brother's eyes. It was amazing, really, that someone you cared about could be so careless. "No," Thor said quietly. "None of those things."

"Really?" Loki asked. "So I am to be set free? Interesting choice."

Thor stared at his brother for a moment longer before he leaned over and whispered one word in his ear. When he leaned back, for the first time, he saw a look of true fear on Loki's face. "No..." Loki whispered.

"Take him away," Thor said to the Dragons. They began to pull Loki out of the room and Thor turned away.

"No!" Loki shouted behind him. "No! You cannot do this!"

"Goodbye, Loki," he said softly without turning his head.

He crossed the room to Jane and Eric, who were carefully watching two Dragons lift Darcy and place her on to a long piece of wood. "How is she?" he asked.

"Still not deaf," Darcy answered from the stretcher as the Dragons lifted it and began to walk to the medical rooms.

Jane smiled and looked up at him. "She'll be fine, I think. The Dragon's are going to take her to their surgeon, Mikael, to clean and stitch the wound. I'm going to with them, if that's okay."

Thor nodded and kissed her on the forehead. "You were very brave, today." He looked over her head at Eric. "You both were."

Eric smiled before touching Jane's shoulder. "Thank you. Come on, Jane. Let's make sure Darcy doesn't hurt any of the Dragons or roll off of the stretcher."

"I heard that!" Darcy called from the hallway.

The three of them laughed before Jane and Eric left the room. Once they were gone, Thor went over to Mal, where the rest of his Dragons had Sigyn in handcuffs. Stopping next to the prince, he took a deep breath. "I am truly sorry about your wife. What my father did was wrong. I did not know or else I would not allowed it to occur."

Mal nodded. "I know you wouldn't have. We are different men than our former kings, thankfully. Yours wanted glory and mine wanted to keep secrets."

Thor watched as the Dragons pulled Sigyn to her feet. "What will you do with her?"

"I figured whatever punishment you had in mind for your brother would be satisfactory for my cousin," Mal said.

Thor watched as the Dragons dragged the screaming princess out of the room. She buckled and tried to dig her feet into the ground but the Dragons never faltered as they pulled into the hallway and out of sight. "It will be," he said quietly. "It will."


	13. Chapter 13

Malefort's coronation took place on a bright and sunny day in Vanaheim. What was left of his kingdom attended, as did most of Asgard. It would take a long time to rebuild but, as the crown was laid on his head, Mal was determined that Vanaheim would return to its former glory.

Once the ceremony was over, Mal retreated to his private chambers, where he went out on to the balcony and looked out over the Vanir. "The people," he murmured. "My people."

"You will get used to it," a voice said behind him.

Mal smiled as Thor came up next to him. "I suppose I will."

"Congratulations," Thor said, handing the new king a glass of wine.

Mal nodded, accepting the glass. "Thank you. But, I am not sure if congratulations are appropriate. My uncle may have been deceitful but he was still my uncle."

"Your uncle, my father," Thor said, resting his glass on the rail as he looked out over the city. "We cannot change the sins of our predecessors. We can only hope to correct their mistakes and not make the same ones ourselves."

Mal shrugged as he took a drink. "I suppose that's true. I hear that a true congratulations is in order for you, though."

Thor nodded slowly. "I guess so."

"When is the date?"

Thor looked down into the crowd until he spotted the familiar brown headed woman he was seeking. Jane stood with Darcy and Eric, chatting with Volstagg and Hogan while Fandral flirted with a Vanir woman nearby. The two Warriors had been knocked unconscious by Hela and her minions during the battle but were otherwise unharmed and Fandral was back to his usual self, though he took to carrying Sif's shield with him everywhere he went. Out of all of them, he had taken the loss of the female Warrior the hardest. When the Vanir woman he was speaking with frowned and abruptly tossed her drink in his face, the remaining group broke out in laughter and Thor couldn't help but smile. "Soon, I hope. Darcy has some sort of event to attend, finals they call it, before she is allowing us to have the wedding."

"Finals?" Mal inquired. "What are those?"

Thor sighed. "Some Midgardian test that one must take to demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired over their years of schooling. Apparently, the people of Midgard sit in great halls and answer question written out on paper."

"Truly?" Mal asked. "That is a strange way to gauge knowledge."

Thor nodded. "I agree." They both fell silent for a moment and watched as the sun began to sink down in the sky, turning from gold to a light pink. Finally, Thor took a deep breath. "Any word?" he asked quietly.

"No," Mal responded. Even in times of ceremony, business and politics must come first. It was one thing he was learning. "There's no word. They haven't returned to Hel and none of my contacts on any of the other worlds have seen them. Nathaniel and Hela appear to have disappeared."

"Do you think they survived?"

Mal nodded. "Yes, unfortunately, I do. And they'll be back one day. Not soon, perhaps, but one day." He went quiet for a moment. "And Sigyn?" he finally said softly.

Thor glanced over at his friend. "Loki," he said simply.

Mal nodded and two of them continued to look out over the city. Below them, a band struck up a joyful song and it wasn't long before they left their perch to join the party. As they danced with their people, they momentarily forgot their problems. Hela and Nathaniel. Sigyn and Loki. Sif. These battles weren't through but, for one night, the two kings were able to push their troubles aside and enjoy what had been given to them. Life. Love. And, Thor thought as he looked around at Eric, Darcy, and his Warriors, everlasting friendship.

***

_Somewhere in the Deadlands..._

The tips of her fingers were going numb as they curved around the silver bowl clasped in her hands. The weight in the bowl made her shoulders burn with fatigue, as though they begged to be released from their torturous position, but she could not move. She would not move. The rocks on the plateau bit into her knees as she kneeled on the ground, scraping them raw, leaving them bloody and bruised. Her head hung low. How long had it been since she slept? She couldn't be sure. Weeks, or maybe even months. She'd lost count. It didn't matter anymore. This was eternity. This was all there would ever be, for the both of them.

Another drop fell into the bowl and that single drop felt as though it weighed a hundred pounds. She lifted her head far enough to look into the bowl and saw that the viscous liquid inside was already to the brim. It felt like it had filled quicker this time than last. She shifted ever so slightly, careful not to spill a single drop on to the man who lie beneath the bowl or herself. She licked her cracked lips before clearing her throat. It had been days since either of them had spoken and it took her a few tries to find her voice. "Loki."

Loki cracked his eyes open a scant bit and turned his head slightly in her direction. His eyes were bloodshot and his skin was almost yellow with fever. His bare chest had numerous amounts of red welts on it, though none of them hurt anymore and most of them were faded, soon be gone. His naked arms and legs were splayed away from his body and chained to the ground so that the only thing he could move was his head. The discomfort and cramping of not being able to move had been nearly unbearable during the first few days but he no longer felt any of that pain. Perhaps, he thought with a glance to the bowl above him, that was because there were far worse things in this world than discomfort.

He refocused on the green eyes that stared down at him. She looked so different now. Her black hair, once beautiful, was dry, frizzy, and coated in a layer of dust. Her lips were cracked like his and her naked body covered in bruises. Some of them were leftovers from the battle. But most of them were from this place. The serpent's lair had not been kind to her. "Sigyn," he answered.

Sigyn looked down at him. "The bowl is almost full."

Loki swallowed hard. "How much longer?"

"One, maybe two drips," she answered. They'd gotten good at knowing this information. It was all they had to do, after all. The first few days of their confinement they'd spent plotting their revenge, talking about the life they would lead once they broke free of their bonds. But, those talks were long gone now and all that mattered was the bowl, a single silver bowl.

Loki nodded slightly. "Okay." He took a few deep breaths to steady himself. "After the next drip, run."

Sigyn nodded and focused her eyes upward, her gaze intent. Ten feet over the bowl, an ancient, giant serpent laid staked to the rocks, its mouth flayed open. It was the serpent that the winter goddess, Skadi, had killed thousands of moons ago and mounted on these rocks. Though long dead, the snake's body was still filled with venom and that venom now dripped mercilessly from its fangs and on to whatever victim lie below. At the moment, that victim was a harmless silver bowl. In another moment, however, that victim would be her beloved.

Sigyn saw a drip of venom forming off of one of fangs and held her breath, waiting for it to fall. The venom of this serpent was the strongest of any kind of poison. It sent intense shockwaves of pain through any flesh it touched, waves that were so strong they made the earth tremble and sky roar with thunder. She'd accidentally spilled some on her hand once while emptying the bowl and the pain had been so intense that she'd spent an hour unconscious while Loki had screamed in unbearable pain as the venom dripped on his chest. When she'd awoken, she'd been so horrified at the hurt he'd had to endure that she made certain to never make that mistake again. She must always be able to hold the bowl. One day, she knew, the venom would run out; the serpent's body was dead and no longer making any new toxin. But, Sigyn wondered if she or Loki would make it to that day. At the moment, it was all she could do to focus on that single drop.

She watched it as it continued to grow until it was finally large enough to release itself from the tooth. her eyes followed it as it fell through the air and, as soon as it joined its brethren in its silver grave, she scrambled to her feet, careful not to disturb the liquid.

"Hurry," Loki said as she carefully made her way to the edge of the plateau. Twenty feet might not seem like a long walk but, with a chain that weighed at least a hundred pounds shackled to her ankle, it might as well have been a mile.

Sigyn carefully balanced the bowl as she drug her foot along. When she was at the edge, she flung the liquid over the edge and into the abyss below. Without waiting to hear it hit the bottom, she turned around and began to drag herself back.

She was halfway back when Loki's breathing audibly increased. "Hurry, Sigyn," he said. "It's going to drip again."

Sigyn looked up and saw that, indeed, another drop of venom was forming on a fang. "I'm coming," she said, her heart beginning to beat more rapidly. Balancing the bowl in one hand, she reached down with the other and tried to move her chain along more quickly. But, it still wasn't enough. With a desperate cry, Sigyn watched as the drip of venom release from the serpent's tooth just moments later. She held her breath as it fell through air and heard Loki's sharp intake of air just before it hit his flesh. When it did, he let out a bloodcurdling scream and, as the liquid soaked into his skin, his body began to spasm violently. As the earth underneath her feet began to shake and the sky above crackled with booming thunder, she moved, dragging her foot behind her as quickly as she could. She heard him moaning loudly as his head thrashed back and forth, the muscles in his neck strained to the point of breaking. By the time she reached him, his moaning had stopped though his body was still jerking like it had just been jolted by electricity. "I'm so sorry, my love," she whispered, holding the bowl back out over his chest, which now sported a fresh red welt from where the venom had hit. "I will be faster next time." She always said the same thing but it didn't seem to matter. No matter how fast she moved, no matter how well she timed it, he always got hit when she went to empty the bowl.

Loki finally stopped shaking and laid with his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened his eyes to look at her, she saw tears sprinkling his bottom lashes and, though she longed to brush them away, she didn't dare move. He looked at the bowl above him before looking at her. "Thank you," he whispered before closing his eyes again. "Thank you for coming back."

She nodded silently because she understood. This was her punishment. She didn't have to hold the bowl. She could ease her suffering, she could release the bowl and leave him to the mercy of the serpent. She could block out his screams while she slept, maybe even forget for awhile about her shackles and remember the time that she was free. But, doing that meant to subject him to nearly intolerable pain and then having to live with the fact that she did it willingly. It was one thing to lose consciousness. It was another to do it on purpose.

So, with heavy arms and a heavier heart, she held her bowl high, listening to it as it filled, drip by drip. "One day, my love," she whispered as Loki's breath evened out into sleep. "One day we will be free."


End file.
